16th October 2018

This is a movie reveiw!

“Kia Ora, my name’s Boy”. A phrase that was repeated many times over and over in 2010 by the youth of New Zealand. Boy was released on March the 25th 2010 into cinemas. It immediately struck the hearts of people all over the country. The movie is a story of a young kid known as Boy and played by James Rolleston. He’s growing up in a rural town in the bay of plenty, he has a young brother called Ricky who is a little crazy. He is looked after by his grandmother. He also has several cousins. His mum is dead, his father (who is played by the director Taika Waite) is not around. He worships his father believing he is a legend of sort’s a jailbreaker and a great warrior. He spends most of his days hanging out with his friends Dallas and Dynasty, dreaming about Michael Jackson and staring at love of his life Chardonnay. Suddenly out of the blue one day boy’s father turns up, and it turns out he’s actually not all that. I believe this is one of the best and well thought out movies around due to its humorous characters, well thought-out and realistic events, and well-used cinematography.

In my humble opinion a truly good movie can never exist without at least a little humor!, saying that Boy is a truly good movie. Director taika waite new what he was doing and the cast brought it a step up. Boy’s sort of naive perspective on the world only adds to the humor displayed of the small town were Boy live’s. A kind of humor that comes perfectly natural to it and was well done to not be overdone. Perfect examples of this lie in the aunty-with-every-job-available skit, boy taking chardonnay driving in his “car”, or even just the everyday banter that boy and his friends have about the usual, how to pull girls, after school jobs, annoying schoolmates and michael jackson dance moves. One of the scene’s early in the movie is particularly stand out as banterish to me. Dallas Dynasty and Boy are sitting on the steps discussing girls dallas points out he pulls girls by telling them he is scared of undies and then they show him them to get him to go away. Boy then see’s chardonnay and jumps up to demonstrate his michael jackson dancing, upon that dancing failing Dallas calls out “tell her your afraid on undies”. This kind of humor continues throughout the movie giving it a warm feel over some of the subjects I am talking about in the next paragraph!  

Not all good movies are realistic, star wars for example- I would be willing to bet the millions of dollars I don’t have- will never come real. However it is a mark for Boy that it is, as well as humorous, a thought provoking and quite realistic film. The town in which boy lives could very well be a real place. The school life, weird man ricky makes friends with, the setting and abusive dad are perfect examples. I particularly love the idea of the abusive dad and how well played it is, you see in a pure comedy it would make perfect sense to have a dad who even if he was abusive was funnily abusive. Yet taika waititi well played it and gave the movie some heart, soul and depth with certain scene’s. For example the dad being beaten by the local gang and the dad when he rips the jacket off Boys back outside the general store have absolutely nothing funny about them and are heartfelt moments which you really feel something for. Even once the screen has been black for many minutes.

Just like you can’t write a book without a pen, You can’t make a movie without a camera. Or without a make-up crew, lighting crew, dress directors, sound directors and site finders/builders. These positions are never well enough recognized but at the same if they done badly can seriously affect the quality of the movie. This IS NOT THE CASE in Boy. The cuts scratches and bruises where perfect made up by the make up crew. As already mentioned the setting could not be better thanks to the setting crew. The characters looked dressed like they should be due to the dress crew. But it is the lighting and sound that I really would like to focus on in this paragraph, lighting and sound help define the mood in every scene. A good example we can look is and old friend I mentioned before. The scene in which boy’s dad gets beaten up by the real gang. The lighting is dark and shadowy but again not unrealistic dark and shadowy just a dim gloom like a mix between sepia and grayscale on a camera, like the shadow on an unshaven mans face. The sound is quite at first which is even more effective than noisy(there’s an interesting lesson) as you see boys father getting beaten up but just hear muffled sounds. Throughout  the movie this level of sound proficiency continues what I particularly loved is that when music came on it faded in stubley and just gave a mood edge. All together I believe it was these extra effects that polished the movie and gave it the ability to be both heavy and humorous at the same time.

So is Boy worth watching. I would say that if every minute you watched cost you an ounce of gold, it would be worth it. This is a truly incredible movie that pulls off being both hard hitting and humorous due to its well used cinematography, well thought-out and realistic event’s and humorous characters. It’s the kind of movie that leaves you laughing. The kind of movie that leaves you thinking. The kind of movie that leaves you sweaty with exhilaration. The kind of movie you really should watch!    

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