3+1 Short Paragraphs: The Hunt for the Wilderpeople

2016, Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) -- Netflix

Marmy made me watch this, as she had watched it prior during one of my Boys Night Out. We both watch stuff alone, usually me and my disaster flicks or Star Trek and she and her "ghostie shows". But if she recommends I watch something, it is with good reason. And damn, again with the best praise I can come up with is to swear. Waititi makes a movie that is funny, poignant, sad and entirely engaging. See? Weaksauce praise sentence. I need to work on those; pointing out the terrible bits of a movie is so much easier.

Ricky is a tough little troublemaker in the foster child system. He is sent by a zealous child care agent to live with a couple in a remote part of New Zealand. After a rocky start, Ricky sees that Bella really wants things to be better for him. His gangsta attitude doesn't really fit into the rural area, but she doesn't care and gives him love anyway. Her cranky old coot husband Hec (Sam Neill) barely tolerates Ricky. Then she dies. Holey crap; I did not expect that.

With a return to the system as his only choice, Ricky tries to run away but gets lost in the woods, found by Hec, who in turn injures himself. In the weeks they camp out, while Hec recovers, they get to understand each other more. But the outside world has assumed Hec has kidnapped Ricky. Comedic misunderstanding ensues.

Normally I hate the bratty gangsta kid. But damn, if Julian Dennison as Ricky is just downright charming. He wants to be that urban kid, but like most of them, only seems to know the sub-culture from American TV. He stylizes everything he does, even when presented with the Kiwi wilderness. And carries it through the hero's journey he is presented with. Totally wonderful movie.