Hunt for the Wilderpeople is written and directed by Taika Waititi and stars Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rachel House, Rima Te Wiata, Oscar Kightley, Tioreore Ngatai Melbourne, Cohen Holloway and Rhys Darby. It follows Ricky Baker, a young offender who is put under the care of a countryside living couple. Life is seemingly quiet and perfect, but when an certain incident occurs, Ricky and one of his new parents go out on an adventure in the bush of New Zealand, and a national manhunt ensues. With this being the latest from Taika Waititi, I was really itching to see it. Waititi has done, in my opinion, some of the best comedies of recent years, such as 2010's coming-of-age comedy Boy, or more recently the 2014 vampire-based mockumentary, What We Do in the Shadows. His cinematic and comedic genius has been consistently spellbinding, and it even landed him a directing job at Marvel Studios on next years Thor Ragnarok. So, does this film match his past efforts? Here's my take on Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
This film is, to quote the characters themselves, majestical. Seriously, it's sheerly superb. It's a film that delivers consistent laugh out loud gags but still manages to touch and emotionally enlighten you in the process. Much of this can be attributed to Waititi's writing. The originality and hilarity in the script and in the dialogue is to be admired. The story is brilliantly structured and the lead characters are beautifully thought out and wonderfully vibrant. Then there's the dialogue, which brings constant wit and smart, absurdist lines of humour to the film. The writing here feels so fresh and so proudly different that it's too hard not to love. But Waititi is not just a great writer, he's a gloriously exuberant director too. He knows what he's doing behind the camera, and this leads to you just feeling his presence in the film. You watch this film and you can feel that it's Waititi, and it makes all the more in love with it.
Sam Neill deserves more work. I don't know if he's just doing less because he's easing up to retirement, but between this and BBC's Peaky Blinders, I'm truly desperate to see him in more projects. He captures all the nuances of his complex character absolutely perfectly, and his dry comedic delivery is divine. He plays the transformation of the character extremely well and was mesmerising to watch. However, it's maybe the young Julian Dennison who is the real standout here as Ricky Baker, a 13 year old young offender who loves haiku's and Tupac Shakur. The charm and the commitment of the performance is astounding, and I really think he's one to watch in the coming years. One of the best comedic performances I've seen from a child actor in a long time, and maybe one of the best performances in general I've seen from a child actor in a long time. On top of this, we get a heap of hilarious supporting performances, such as Rachel House as child welfare services worker Paula, Rhys Darby as a man at one with nature named Psycho Sam, and even Waititi himself, who cameos as a dis-functional priest in the first act, in one of the funniest moments of the film.
In terms of how this film looks, both the editing and cinematography do the job extremely well. The film makes ballsy and different editing choices which are given a warm and deserved welcome, and the shots of the characters walking across the heights of the mountainous land are undoubtably stunning. But the angles of the all the shots also never fail to be interesting or fun, and that's a big plus for me. The film also uses music very well. The retro, dramatic, synth-heavy score creates a magnificent atmosphere, and the already existing songs used accompany the tone of the film perfectly. I particularly loved a use of Nina Simone's Sinnerman that made for an amazing fit and accompanied a heavily entertaining montage, but the truth is that all of the music served the film well. The film also has a wonderfully fast pace, that never slows down and never gets to a point where you're bored, and that really kept it on it's toes.
Now, I've talked about how funny the film is, but it's important to understand that it handles emotional weight and poignancy exquisitely. There are sad parts and there are beautifully endearing parts, and whilst these moments will always be relieved with some form of excellent surrealistic comedy or a witty line of dialogue, you always feel their depth and you always feel the meaning behind them. The film may be packed full of jokes, but it's never strays far from it's message or the exploration of emotion in it's characters, and with some of the films we get these days, it's always important to learn a thing or two about humanity and to never forget what it means to be a human being, and I have a deep respect for this film for portraying that as well as it did.
Equal parts endearing and hysterical, Hunt for the Wilderpeople shows excellence in areas of writing, directing, acting, editing, cinematography and score. It has entertaining moments of action and adventure and hilarious moments of two people sitting in a room and talking and yet every moment had me completely engaged. The characters are fresh and different, but you still relate to and sympathise with them. The fast pace is exhilarating, but the quiet moments where we get to see the growing bond between the two leads are deeply heartfelt and touching. This is definitely one of my favourite films of the year and probably my favourite Taika Waititi project yet, and whilst he still feels an odd choice to take the hammer of Thor, it's getting even easier to see why his talent is giving him so much recognition in the industry.
Grade: A+
So what did you think of Hunt for the Wilderpeople? Have you seen it? Did you enjoy it? Make sure to let me know down in the comments and if you liked this review and want to see more like it go to creators.co/@garwoodreviews for more.