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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW
Boy
When Dad Comes Home, Trouble And Adulthood Begins

James Rolleston as the title character in Taika Waitiki's comedy-drama "Boy".  Unison/Wahlua Films
    
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Cool as an ocean breeze and bright as a golden sun, "Boy", a comedy-drama directed by Taika Waitiki ("Eagle Vs. Shark"), wins your heart with its magical fairy-tale quality abutted by the cold reality of adulthood.  The film follows three fantasy worlds, one of Boy (James Rolleston), a huge Michael Jackson fan who fancies himself as the Gloved One; Alamein, Boy's abrasive but fun-loving father (Mr. Waitiki) who thinks his own Crazy Horse Gang of three are world-beaters, and Boy's brother Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu), who may be endowed with special magic powers.

Set in New Zealand in 1984 during the height of Michael-mania, "Boy" has a comic sweetness and playful energy that is entertaining and endearing.  Its children are wise beyond their years, especially Rocky, who has a closer relationship to a homeless man he calls "Weirdo" than to his dirt-poor father, which gets a very clear explanation in Mr. Waitiki's film.  The director gets the balance right in the exploration of the fragile family Boy is a member of, and his and Rocky's relationship with the father vulnerable to his own sense of failure.  Left unspoken but resonant is the gloomier side of realizing one's dreams: that the grass isn't necessarily greener -- for Michael Jackson in particular -- and that "Boy" wrapped up shooting just at the time he passed away is a coincidence in itself.

"Boy" is a lush, colorful, gentle coming-of-age movie with some lessons dispensed, their understandings often communicated in a character's piercing, knowing glare.  The silences amidst the free-flowing gaiety tell the underlying story: that a child often knows reality and truth with more acute clarity than not only an adult estimates but better than an adult often themselves might.  The pain of loss, whether physical, emotional or monetary is a constant theme of "Boy", as is the aspiration to do better in life, to better oneself and make it to the big time.  Mr. Jackson is the touchstone of this idea, and he's lovingly and amusingly mimicked by cast members, including the director, in numerous sequences and in the end credits.

Beyond all else, "Boy", flickering with wide-eyed imagination, humor and glee, vividly alternating between childlike-visions of good and bad, and the true sorrows and less joyous side of life as innocence fades.  There are at least two moments that strongly evoke the clash of innocence with harsh reality, and one of them, seen three times, is especially jarring even though it is discreet.  The move through childhood for Boy is the complex, wild, free, liberating, adventurous and full of deceit, as are virtually all the characters on Mr. Waitiki's rural stage.  (You'd have to agree that if the director chose to make a sequel, it would obviously be called "Man".)

Mr. Waikiti's "Boy" is punctuated by excellent performances from Mr. Rolleston, the 12-year-old who plays the pre-pubescent title character, Mr. Eketone-Whitu as Rocky, and the director himself as Alamein.  The youthful boy characters often aggravated me for some peculiar reason I can't put my finger on.  Maybe it was how they at times seemed to get away with things that some children (myself included many years back) wouldn't dream of getting away with.  Or maybe it was that as with many father-son relationships, Alamein's absence in Boy's and Rocky's lives means that he isn't automatically taken very seriously by his sons.  The film's title could also apply to Alamein, and his own arrested development.

Astutely directed with deliberation, sensitivity, intelligence, echoing romantic notions of the 1980s fantasy world (E.T., Tron, Michael Jackson and his pet menagerie), "Boy" is 84 minutes long but feels longer, as so much is happening.  There are layers, subtle and otherwise, plus detail and characters who never utter a word, though I felt I knew a lot about them just in the expressive looks they registered into the camera.  Calm, cute and self-assured, "Boy" is a tender gem that represents Mr. Waikiti's best film to date.
With: Moerangi Tiore, Haze Rewiti, Rajvinder Eria, Cherilee Martin.

"Boy" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association Of America.  It contains language and brief violence.  The film's running time is one hour and 24 minutes.
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