HUNT FOR THE
WILDERPEOPLE
B
New Zealand (101 mi) 2016 ‘Scope
d: Taika
Waititi
Official
site
The first New Zealand film to gross more than $1 million
dollars on its opening weekend at the New Zealand box office, this is pure
family entertainment, channeling the quirky, character-driven escapades of Wes
Anderson, specifically 2012
Top Ten Films of the Year: #3 Moonrise Kingdom, creating a heartwarming
story about a lost child, who’s only lost to the people seen in the story, as
he’s center stage throughout the film where the audience knows where he is at
all times. Thriving on the outgoing, multi-faceted personality of a
charming, overweight 13-year old child actor Julian Dennison playing a
displaced Maori kid named Ricky Baker, described as “a real bad egg,” a comical
misfit who’s been kicked around the block a few times, moving from group homes
and foster families, but eventually running away or getting kicked out of every
single placement after committing a series of seemingly neverending offenses so
that now there’s no one left who wants him anymore except Aunty Bella (Rima Te
Wiata), a rugged farmwife living out in the sticks with her cantankerous
husband Hec (Sam Neill), both as wildly eccentric as Ricky himself. The
satiric tone of the film is set when the police arrive to a home in the middle of
nowhere delivering this wayward kid to their door, where Paula (Rachel House),
the child welfare services representative, hands him off to his new family like
he’s damaged goods, claiming this is his last and final chance, as the welfare
system itself is sick and tired of him, believing he might be better off in
jail, but as he’s still a kid, they’re obligated to at least try to offer him
some semblance of a better life. After reading him the riot act, followed
by a hilarious list of all his petty offenses, each one comically visualized,
they depart, almost certain they’ll be back in a week to recollect him once
again. Ricky receives plenty of hugs and encouraging words from Aunty
Bella welcoming him to the family while Uncle Hec and his dog Zag ignore him
completely, hanging out in the barn instead hoping they never run into each
other, as he’s obviously not too keen on the idea. Nonetheless Bella
stuffs him full of pancakes and pies and sausages and just about anything else
he can eat as a sign of endearment, but this doesn’t stop him from making a
break for it in the middle of the night, wandering into the vast unknown where
Bella finds him in the morning not 200 yards from the house offering him some
breakfast.
Told with amusing chapter headings, what’s apparent from the
outstanding opening aerial shot whizzing just over the tops of the verdant
mountains and vast extended wilderness of New Zealand is the natural beauty of
the landscape, something put to good use in this film, as this is a home on such
distant outskirts from civilization that there isn’t a single neighbor to be
seen anywhere, where they’re really out on their own. Perhaps the finest
expression of the warmth and zaniness of his new home is the birthday song sung
by Bella, Ricky
baker birthday song full from the hunt for the wilderpeople YouTube (59
seconds), exhibiting lunacy and mad delight all at once, where Ricky is
entranced while Hec can hardly believe his ears. His birthday gift is a
giant pit bull mix dog that he immediately names Tupac, so it comes as a huge
surprise that shortly afterwards Bella dies unexpectedly, completely altering
the balance of the universe for Ricky, as child services announces they’ll be
out shortly to collect him, but not before the funeral services are held in a
near empty church with the director serving as the minister, offering some
puzzling and strangely ambiguous metaphors for the next stage in their lives
which doesn’t really help them at all, but perhaps confuses things
instead. Weary of having to return to another institution, Ricky fakes
his own death and runs away into the bush with his dog, accompanied by the jazzy
music of Nina Simone, NINA
SIMONE - Sinnerman (1965) [Video Clip] - YouTube (5:27), discovered shortly
afterwards by Uncle Hec and his dog, combining forces while learning to survive
in the wilderness, something Hec knows all too well, as its second nature to
him. Strangely, this is an inverse of Walkabout
(1971), where here it’s the knowledge of a grizzly old white guy leading an
urbanized young Maori child through the bush, where Ricky thinks it’s totally
gangster to be avoiding the law, but he’s more of a pain in the ass to Hec than
even he can imagine. Nonetheless, in his own goofy way, he retains his
comical sensibility throughout while Hec remains grumpy, dour, and ever stoic,
barely able to tolerate a youngster that has no interest in listening or
learning from him. The two couldn’t be less alike, which becomes even
more apparent when Hec stumbles on a rock and sprains an ankle, probably
needing weeks to recover. Channeling John Rambo in FIRST BLOOD (1982),
Ricky goes into full survivor mode, Hunt
for the Wilderpeople Movie CLIP - Hunting for Food (2016) - Sam Neill, Julian
Dennison YouTube (55 seconds), mostly failing miserably in his efforts while
Hec is a natural born wilderness man.
While Ricky goes missing, rumors abound with social
advocates suggesting the grieving uncle has kidnapped the kid and gone mad in
the wild, Hunt
for the Wilderpeople Movie CLIP - Famous (2016) - Sam Neill, Rhys Darby Comedy
HD YouTube (53 seconds), where a search party is dispatched that more
closely resembles an exaggerated SWAT team, complete with riot gear, automatic
weapons and bullet-proof attire, where Paula is leading the charge, megaphone
in hand barking out instructions, where she has to be reminded that she’s not
even a cop. This does not deter her from appearing in front of TV cameras
and announcing that “No child is left behind,” as if he’s been left and
abandoned in a war zone. The nation remains riveted to this developing
manhunt, where Hec is being labelled a pervert with lascivious motives, becoming
public enemy number one while behind the scenes, unbeknownst to anyone, he’s
really more of the savior and guiding light. The contrast between the two
separate worlds is well drawn, where the intimacy in the wilderness, despite
their initial suspicions and reservations, is actually a developing friendship,
as Hec is actually saving Ricky from the forces of doom that intend to ruin his
life, developing an “us against them” mentality, beautifully rendered in one of
the most eloquent sequences in the film, a winter scene in the thick of the
forest where they continually hide from the pursuing soldiers set to the music
of Leonard Cohen, “The Song of the Partisan,” La Résistance/the
partisan-Leonard Cohen - YouTube (3:34). This is exquisite
filmmaking, reminiscent of the barren harshness in the Scandinavian film King
of Devil's Island (Kongen av Bastøy) (2010) featuring a similar prison
break in the snow, adding a surprising degree of complexity and depth to what
is ostensibly a children’s story. While much of this turns out to be a
chase film, continually pursued by the authorities, where arch rivals Ricky and
Paula come close enough at one point separated by a ravine to exchange trash
talk:
Ricky Baker: I’ll never stop
running!
Paula: Yeah, and I'll never stop
chasing you – I’m relentless, I’m like the Terminator.
Ricky Baker: I’m more like
the Terminator than you!
Paula: I said it first, you’re more
like Sarah Connor, and in the first movie too, before she could do chinups.
Adapted by the director from Barry Crump’s short comic novel
Wild Pork And Watercress (1986), this zany mood is sustained throughout
the film, mixing in strange social references and a collection of oddball
characters to this already mismatched couple, becoming a coming-of-age, buddy
movie where braving the elements becomes a battle of self-sufficiency, growing
up and learning to trust oneself, where fantasy and humor are interspersed with
expressive language and moments of tenderness, all part of the learning
experience Ricky so reluctantly embarked upon in the first place. Despite
the obstacles, and the director throws plenty at them, the outlaw pair on the
run cunningly displays a healthy degree of wit and charm, including a brief
diversion into a Maori family that accepts Ricky without question, as he’s
become a folk hero as a slippery fugitive on the lam with his photos plastered
all over TV, seen taking selfies eventually posted on the Internet, where the
missing kid becomes something of a rock star. This has all the makings of
a delightful children’s movie that’s just clever enough to be suitable for adults
as well.
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