Oh 'Boy' - Kiwi film shines at Sundance

Another New Zealand movie has had sell-out audiences buzzing at the Sundance film festival - Boy the second feature film by New Zealand director Taika Waititi is apparently the talk of the Utah event.

The film is one of only 14 selected out of 1022 submissions to Sundance's World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and audience reaction is said to have been "fantastic".

Waititi’s first feature film, Eagle versus Shark, premièred at Sundance in 2005, and his latest offering extends some of the characters and ideas from an award- winning short film Two Cars One Night.

True New Zealand film
Boy is set on New Zealand’s remote East Coast where Waititi was brought up.

It is a "true New Zealand film in a true New Zealand setting", and one of the films everyone at the festival is talking about, NZ Film Commission sales manager James Thompson said.

He said audience reaction to Boy had been "fantastic", and was a tribute not only to Waititi who wrote directed and acted in the film, but also the producers.

Waititi, who has travelled to Utah for the première as a guest of the festival, said it was "pretty awesome" to take his sunny east coast New Zealand film to play in the snowy mountains of Park City, Utah.

James Rolleston, the 11-year-old boy who makes his debut lead in the feature film, was given a standing ovation when he joined Waititi at the end of the Sundance première.

Home-town Boy
Boy was shot in Waititi’s home town of Waihau Bay - in the North Island region of Eastland - and is set in the 1980s. It’s a comedy-drama, coming-of-age tale about heroes, magic and Michael Jackson.

Film reviewer Eric Kohn says the film "marks a step up in maturity" for the Kiwi director.

In a review for indiewire.com, Kohn praised Waititi for his understanding and treatment of the film's young characters.

"The result is alternately zany, sentimental, and remarkably insightful about the quirks of a child's mind."

The film features Rolleston as 11-year-old Boy, Te Aho Eketone-Whitu as younger brother Rocky, and Waititi as their father Alamein.

Boy imagines his dad to be a war hero and close relative of Michael Jackson - despite him being in reality an inept criminal.

Although Variety magazine has criticised the film as being "more cult than commercial", other reviews from US media have said "Boy succeeds as both an ode to childhood and a lament about growing up".

The film will be released in New Zealand early this year.

More information:

Home-town Boy for Sundance festival

Spotlight on NZ film industry