Hunt for the Wilderpeople review

by Luke Jones

New Zealand is a country of contrasts. Cinema audiences have known this for a while; where else could the breadth of Tolkien’s imagination be realised? It’s a place where you can indulge in any extreme sports activity you can think of, yet delights in deadpan, dry humour (Flight of the Conchords, What we do in the Shadows). Hunt for the Wilderpeople revels in its country’s disparate identities, and deliveries the most entertaining indie for years.

At its most basic Wilderpeople is a buddy movie, a journey of two mismatched characters who grudgingly learn to respect one another. It switches between understated laughs a la Flight of the Conchords to over the top farce a la, er, Flight of the Conchords (hello, Rhys Darby). It isn’t afraid to tug at the heartstrings, and even throws action into the mix (featuring a car chase with more than a hint of the cathartic third act of Thelma & Louise). It’s a remarkably assured piece of work from Taika Waititi and his crew, wrangling a range of tones into a coherent film that never feels limited by its independent foundations.

For example, one early scene sees troubled foster child Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) and ‘Aunt’ Bella (Rima Te Wiata) come across a wild boar in a forest. Bella quickly demonstrates her ability with a hunting knife, slitting the creature’s throat (the film as a whole is not vegan-friendly) and finishing with a laugh as Ricky reacts to the violence in front of him. The scene mixes dialogue as the two slowly open up to one another before exploding into violence via a series of rapid cuts. Crucially, while the scene is bloody the camera shies away from showing any actual stabbing; the audience gets the result and Ricky’s actions, yet the impact is still retained without overwhelming the comedy. Character drama, violence and comedy in a few minutes of screen time; it’s one of the scenes of the year.

The scene is referenced later in the film; just look at the way both Bella and Hec (Sam Neill) draw their knives. The first time is a shocking introduction to Bella’s capabilities as a hunter; the second serves as a reminder of Hec’s relationship and humanises him prior to a crucial scene in the story.

The cast is uniformly excellent, with each of the leads bringing depth to characters that, on the surface, could easily become clichés. The troubled kid with a heart of gold, the gruff loner, the understanding mother figure, the Trunchbull-like social worker; Dennison, Neill, Te Wiata and Rachel House are all at the top of their game. The soundtrack from Moniker brings just the right level of indie quirk to the film without overwhelming it (although a moment with a cheap keyboard threatens to turn over the boat).

What we do in the Shadows showed that director Wiatiti is a great comedy director; Wilderpeople expands his skillset even further. If Thor 3, his next project, has a similar development of his abilities then the Marvel universe is in for something special indeed.