Taika Waititi on setAs the bells of Captain America: Civil War consume the airwaves, the name Taika Waititi tends to ring more recognition as the director of the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok than for his most recent film. Playing like gangbusters at both the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals – check out Jason’s positive review here – Waititi’s kid adventure flick Hunt For The Wilderpeople is primed to warm and race hearts as he zips across the New Zealand countryside with an adorable ragamuffin and a grizzly Sam Neill.
Fans of Waititi’s previous film, the vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows, will be glad to know he’s got another zany, zesty romp under his belt before he applies his comic panache to the latest Thor movie (an underrated chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the most potential for silly fun). After breaking box office records in New Zealand last month, its American trailer has arrived...
Weaving the tale of a child welfare transplant faking his own death to run away in the bush, with his unconventional uncle thrust into the quest alongside him, Hunt for the Wilderpeople looks like a certifiable coming-of-age crowd-pleaser with gorgeous vistas, to boot.
A few thoughts I picked out of the brush…
- Academy Award nominee Waititi packs so many kinetic delights into single frames, whipping hilarious frenzy inside uninterrupted images. Especially Ricky’s rock-throwing, spray-painting delinquency, the playful zooms, and frond-spreading reveals - he’s got a clear, punch line command of motion.
- These delicious accents. Has "bad egg" ever sounded so good?
- While he sports a grumpy grimace throughout the trailer, Sam Neill looks like he’s having more fun here than he has in awhile.
- These costumes are a riot – from Ricky's DIY peacock pallete to the worn out combat attire – but best in show goes to this cat sweatshirt. The best feline apparel since Cookie Lyon roared in Stella McCartney.
- Midnight Special nobly laid its claim as heir apparent to the Guardian & Child Outrun Meddling Bureaucrats subgenre but Wilderpeople may have it beat. It certainly looks more coherent, which is saying something with trailer this full of whiz-bang mayhem.
- Snatched from my inner exercise monologue: “We don’t need to run.” “Let’s just fast walk.”
Sign me up, stamp my passport, and let me frolic amongst the mountains and fast walk free with these guys. Are you gonna backpack along for this backwoods adventure?