Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

When asked why he made a documentary about the lives of vampires What We Do in the Shadows (2014) New Zealand director and writer Taika Waititi responded by saying  ‘I always liked the idea that vampires were a metaphor for marginalised groups; immigrants, homosexuals, anyone who’s had to live in the shadows of society.’  His latest movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) is also about people marginalised by society.

Child Welfare!

This time we are in modern day New Zealand, a police car draws up outside a remote farm on the edge of the bush country, a young 13 year old boy Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) emerges from the vehicle along side the child welfare officer Paula (Rachel House) and Andy (Oscar Kightley) a police man. Ricky has been in foster care all his young life after his mother abandoned him, never really settling into any of his foster homes and is described by Paula as a troublesome juvenile delinquent. This latest placement is with the kind hearted Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her rather grumpy husband Hec (brilliantly played by the great Sam Neill). The bond between Bella and Ricky develops at a pace and the young boy begins to settle into his new home. That is until Bella suddenly passes away and Child Services informs Hec that because of the change in circumstances the lad must be returned into their care. Ricky fakes his death and runs away into the bush along with Tupac the dog that Bella has given him for his birthday.  He gets lost and is unable to cope until Hec finds him with the intension of returning him to the authorities but when Hec injures his leg the pair have to rest up in the bush for some weeks. Meanwhile Paula has returned to the farm to look for the boy and finds the place empty and the barn burnt down. She immediately jumps to the conclusion that Hec has become unstable following the death of his wife and has abducted the boy. A national manhunt ensues with a reward being offered for the return of Ricky.

 

Ricky meets the kindly Bella.

Hec and Ricky go walkabout. 

Adapted by the director from a book Wild Pork and Watercress by author Barry Crump it’s a story about human nature and how two very different lost souls, one an institutionalised child who thinks he’s a budding young gangster and the other a bush hardened old man who can’t read and write and would rather be on his own and not have to speak to anyone, who form a respectful and loving father and son type relationship. This is a gorgeous movie that allows compassion and feeling while entertaining its audiences with a brilliantly funny dialog and a wonderfully over the top climax. This can be seen on Netflix as well as DVD so there’s no excuse not to see this wonderful rare feel-good movie that does not need a sick bucket. 

Bad Blood.

Stanley Graham, his wife Dorothy and their two children lived on New Zealand’s South Island in a wee town called Kowhitirangi where they worked a small farm. Around about 1938 Stanley and his wife were convinced that the local people were poisoning their beasts. When the income from the farm plummeted the family fell into debt and their relationship with the neighbours deteriorated. Convinced that their bad luck was due to the town folk the couple started to threaten and abuse people who happened to pass their property. Target shooting late at night, the fact that they had an assortment of lethal weapons in the house and that Stanley was an expert marksman did not make their association with the local people any less tense. In 1941 the police started to collect firearms from the inhabitants for wartime use. It was during the dispute over weapons that Graham began his chain of killings and went into hiding in the bush. 

 

Jack Thompson's convincing portrayal of Stanley Graham.

The depiction of these events was the subject of Mike Newell’s 1982 New Zealand/UK feature film Bad Blood, which was based on the book Manhunt – The Story of Stanley Graham and adapted for the screen by Andrew Brown. This is an exceptionally well-made film that conveys the historical context of the period and communicates the social realities found in these small insular communities. Even after witnessing the brutal and unnecessary killings you can’t help but empathise with Stanley Graham who, along with his wife, had obvious metal problems brought on by a persecution complex. The outstanding nature of the movie is underscored by the quality of the acting and not just the great Australian actor Jack Thomson who plays Graham with just the right amount of understatement but Carol Burns. Burns, who had honed her skills in the theatre a good ten years before acting in film and in TV play’s, give’s a more than credible performance as Stanley’s devoted wife and accomplice Dorothy.  Denis Lill plays Constable Edward Best, a familiar face at one time on British TV. The other plus with this film is that it was made and shot in the actual locations where the carnage took place.

The memorial to the victims of Stanley Graham. 

What We Do in the Shadows.

Every few years a Secret Society in New Zealand gathers for a special event: The Unholy Masquerade. In the months leading up to the ball, a documentary crew was granted full access to a small group of this Society. Each crewmember had to wear a crucifix and was granted protection by the subjects of the film.   In 2012, New Zealand's best well-known documentarians, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi teamed up to follow this small group of Wellington-based Vampires. Yes, actual vampires. Real ones!

 

Viago.

The 8000 year old Petyr.

The resulting documentary is a raw, unflinching look at the lives of the undead community, with no stone left unturned; from hunting victims and draining them of their blood to more mundane activities like paying rent and keeping the house tidy we learn interesting facts like vampires don’t do dishes. What We Do in the Shadows (2014) documents the struggles of four undead friends originally from Central Europe who flat share. Narrated by Viago the dandy of the group who is 379-year’s young who introduces us to the others. The oldest and senior member of the group is the misanthropist 8000-year-old Petyr who could have easily been the template for Count Orlok seen in F W Murnau’s 1922 German expressionist horror movie Nosferatu. Next we have Viadislav an 862-year-old sexual pervert and lady-killer and then we are introduced to the bad boy of the group Deacon who is a modest 183 years old and one of Hitler’s ex-Nazi vampire squad. Featured in the documentary are Deacon’s human servant Jackie who runs errands and cleans up victim’s blood and body parts for the vampires, helping to keep some resemblance of order to the flat, and the IT wiz kid Stu who inhabits a central role in the film as a human who our vampires have taken a liking too and have agreed not to eat, proving that although vampires primarily kill people to survive they are still kind of likable?

 

Viadislav. 

The bad boy of the group Deacon doing what no vampire should be forced to do!

This significantly unique documentary examines the fears, hopes and dreams of the undead and asks the question that we have all been meaning to ask a vampire – if your heart has stopped are you really dead, really really dead? I’m sure that all who see this marvelously   dark and strikingly humorous documentary will agree its wonderful to see how these people have adapted to modern life.  I’ll end with a comment from one of the documentary makers Taika Waititi ‘I always liked the idea that vampires were a metaphor for marginalised groups; immigrants, homosexuals, anyone who’s had to live in the shadows of society.’  It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 and if you only ever see one documentary make sure it’s this one.

The documentary makers.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Let me state I do not object to movies with a lengthy running time, but what I do object to is one that is exceptional drawn out with each scene stretched to its limit, which would make any film monotonous and soporific. But to actually attempt to adapt a book that’s barely more than 270 pages into three films with a total running time of nearly nine hours is, I would suggest, a foolhardy task. Of course I’m not saying its impossible but your adaption would need to be absorbing and extremely interesting to maintain interest for that length of time. For example Oliver Assayas brilliant story of Carlos the Jackal, Carlos (2010) weights at 330 minutes, Ingmar Bergman masterful family drama Fanny and Alexander (1982) is well worth staying the course at 312 minutes, as is Sion Sono’s tale of lust and religion Love Exposure (2008) at 237 minutes, and need we forget Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexandeplatz (1981) which is the longest single narrative and well worth a watch at 15 hours. Where is this wee rant leading too, Peter Jackson’s latest middle earth adventure, all 170 minutes of it? The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), which deals with the happenings before Jacksons Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The wizard Gandalf enters Bilbo Baggins hole in the ground.

The young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is enticed to leave his comfortable hole in the ground by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and go on a long and arduous journey with a band of 13 dwarves lead by Thorin (Richard Armitage) who wish to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug a very large and fierce dragon. They encounter various adventures on their way the most enjoyable being when Bilbo Baggins meets the creepy Gollum, played in motion capture by Andy Serkis, a scene that really does ‘capture’ your imagination.

The intricate detail, eye watering CGI and the beautiful cinematography, elevating the New Zealand countryside to something beyond belief, does not make up for an excitement deficiency. If this film had a severe haircut by editor Jabez Olssen with a reduction in running time to approximately two hours then we could have had a fantasy adventure drama that did not feel like a cure for insomnia. There’s no way that I, and many others I imagine, will be prepared to sit for another six hours of Jackson’s indulgent filmmaking.

Bilbo meets Gollum.