Now that New Zealand’s Taika Waititi has hit the big league directing Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, his second film, 2010’s Maori coming-of-age comedy Boy, is finally released in the UK. It’s a disarmingly lovely, big-hearted film, and hilarious in places.
Like Waititi’s 2016 indie hit Hunt for the Wilderpeople, it’s a paean to the strength and resilience of kids, though in its raw and less polished way it’s a little less corny. Set in 1984, Boy (James Rolleston) is a bright, full-of-beans 11-year-old with a lovely open face. Boy hero worships his dim-witted criminal dad (Waititi, giving a dynamite comic performance, like a biker Ali G, with a mullet and crap prison tattoos).
It’s heartbreakingly sad watching Boy’s illusions shatter as he begins to see his father for the cringeworthy immature man-child he is. And with a level of emotional realness missing from most quirky indie comedies, Waititi lets in the thought that, in this deprived rural community, a promising kid like Boy might grow up to be a man like his dad. A tender and funny film; it deserves to be seen.
