Publisher: CinemaSerf February 17, 2025
I really enjoyed James Rolleston’s performance here as his enthusiasm just leaps off the screen at you! His character hasn’t even got a name, but he lives with his gran and the scene-stealing “Rocky” (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu) who has the most fantastic superpowers - not! He is the original Michael Jackson superfan and it’s only his dad who can hope to come close to that level of adulation. His dad “Alamein” (Taika Waititi) is off as a temporary guest of Her Majesty though, and so just imagine his excitement when gran has to head off for a week to attend a funeral just as his father and a few of his pals show up! The young lad is just too absorbed to realise that they a not playing “dig an hole in the garden” for fun, but because there’s some ill-gotten loot buried somewhere. The question isn’t really if they will find it, but who will find it and with a ravenous goat never far from shot, will it survive intact! This is an amiable character study of rural New Zealand in the mid 1980s with a small town, close-knit, community mentality that sees everyone - well the only lady in the place (Rachel House) - look after these kids including “Dallas”, “Dynasty” and there’s even a “Falcon Crest”! She and “Alamein” butt heads occasionally, especially as he becomes more and more frustrated that he can’t find his cash but it’s all amusing stuff. After a fashion, he does care for his son and as the search continues the bond develops. Not so predictably but entertainingly turbulently and with plenty of daft, earthy and witty dialogue from just about all concerned. It celebrates the beauty of their location too but it’s the charming “Rocky” whose merest finger gestures can make things fly or resurrect the dead that really made me smile most. Didn’t we all think, as weans, that we had some sort of magic power? His are illustrated by childlike animations (on graph paper, too!) and, well you can watch and see. It does run out of steam a little, and maybe the joke tires towards the end, but it’s a fun observation on disjointed family life and it’s well worth and hour and an half.