Boy (***)

Taika Waititi, whose earlier film, Eagle vs. Shark, a bit like a New Zealand sequel to Napoleon Dynamite, changes things up with this coming-of-age film set in 1984 in a rural Maori community. The eleven-year-old title character (James Rolleston) lives with his cousins—his mother died giving birth to his younger brother—and invents a glamorous history for his absent father, who’s apparently in jail. But then the old man shows up, leading a three-man “gang” and hoping to dig up the buried “treasure” if only he can figure out where it’s buried.

The father, played by the director, is more of an overgrown child than a gangster, and Boy initially accepts him as a cool new playmate. The movie is a drama, but in the father character especially there are at least hints of the goofiness of Eagle vs. Shark. Additionally, while the characters are not well off, there is something appealing about the way they have free run of the town’s landscapes, which include a lonely beach, and a certain self-reliance. Boy’s fascination with Michael Jackson is a reminder of the reach of global culture, yet this place seems a world apart. (For American ears, the accents may be a little tough to follow.) Boy lacks the pathos and depth that would make the film a classic, but it’s a winsome effort from Waititi.

IMDb link

viewed 4/19/12 7:3 at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 4/19/12