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In 1984, on a small farm at Waihau Bay on New Zealand's East Coast, an 11-year-old known as Boy idolises Michael Jackson and spins tall tales about his absent father. When Dad, Alamein, turns up with two friends, Boy sees a hero. The truth is less heroic. James Rolleston, Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu and Taika Waititi star.
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In 1984, on a small farm at Waihau Bay on New Zealand's East Coast, an 11-year-old known as Boy idolises Michael Jackson and spins tall tales about his absent father. When Dad, Alamein, turns up with two friends, Boy sees a hero. The truth is less heroic. James Rolleston, Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu and Taika Waititi star.
Why watch Boy is funny, sad and specific to its time and place, a coming-of-age story about the gap between the father a child imagines and the one who arrives. It set a record for the opening week of a local film in New Zealand and became the country's highest-grossing homegrown film at the domestic box office. A good entry point to Waititi's work before his Hollywood years.
Taika Waititi wrote and directed the film and plays Alamein, a role he has described as close to his own father. Cliff Curtis, Ainsley Gardiner and Emanuel Michael produced, with finance from the New Zealand Film Commission. It was released in 2010, after Eagle vs Shark, and the soundtrack includes The Phoenix Foundation, who also scored that earlier film.
The young leads carry it. Rolleston plays Boy and Eketone-Whitu his quiet brother, Rocky, who believes he has superpowers. Rachel House, a regular in Waititi’s films, plays their Aunty Gracey. The film closes with a credits dance that mixes haka with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Waititi’s later New Zealand film, pairs a misfit boy and a gruff guardian with the same mix of comedy and melancholy. Eagle vs Shark (2007) shows his offbeat early style. Whale Rider (2002) is another New Zealand coming-of-age story set on the East Coast.
Film · New Zealand
Streaming and rental · NZ AU UK US CA
Before Klara and the Sun opens, every Taika Waititi feature in release order, where the home-grown ones were shot, and where to stream them.
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