Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Dir: Taika Waititi

2016

****

I love director Taika Waititi, I wish he could direct every film but I have to say, other than the fact he's a Kiwi, I didn't really see his style working with one of Barry Crump's novels. However, that said, there is a similar humour that you could say both men have in common. Crump was famous for his good-natured itinerant self-sufficient characters who each had an idiomatic "blokey" feel about them. Crump was a hunter, a bloke, no nonsense guy who still revelled in pointing out the nonsense in others. His most famous novels include Hang on a Minute Mate (1961), One of Us (1962), A Good Keen Girl (1970) and the brilliant Bastards I Have Met (1971). Hunt for the Wilderpeople is based on his 1986 book, Wild Pork and Watercress, not his most famous work but one that resonated with Waititi and one he has been adapting into a screenplay since 2005. The adaption has gone through multiple drafts, Waititi stayed faithful to the book in the beginning but slowly realized that the film had to be different if it was going to work. it is safe to say that Hunt for the Wilderpeople is 50% Crump and 50% Waititi without either's work being diluted or hard done by. Sam Neill's "Uncle" Hector is straight out of one of Crump's books and is the epitome of his style. Ricky on the other hand is far more of a Waititi creation but then the character needed to be updated given that the film is set in the present day. It works extraordinarily well, maybe even better than it did in the original 1986 setting. It is Sam Neill's best performance in years and he is clearly having fun with it but it is young Julian Dennison who steals the show as Ricky, a troubled kid who has been passed from one foster home to another and is sent to live with a couple on the outskirts of the bush as a last ditch attempt at getting him settled before juvenile detention centre becomes child welfare services' only opinion. Waititi was lucky enough to work with Dennison a few years earlier on a television commercial he directed and he clearly left an impression. It's hard to see any other child actor working today fit the role as well as he does. He gets the subtly, the power of the awkward silence and the importance of chemistry between two contrasting characters. Neill praised him in an interview I saw around the same time the film was released, he's a laid back guy but he really raved about how talented the young actor is and he's not wrong. Serious drama isn't easy but comedy isn't either, in some respects it is harder but isn't given the same amount of credit. That said, Dennison displays a whole range of skills and he nails every single one. The scenery is stunning and is almost the third character in this two man film. The film was filmed over five weeks, and was shot in locations including the Central Plateau and the Waitakere Ranges. It's incredible that the entire film was shot using a single camera but then as epic as it looks, it clearly works well from being a relatively small production with a smaller than average crew. When Dennison isn't stealing every scene, Rhys Darby is, as the hilarious Psycho Sam, a man who has lived alone in the darkest corner of the bush for over a decade. I'm not sure who I love the most, Anton the head werewolf or Psycho Sam the bushman, the man is a comedy genius. It's an altogether different sort of film to Waititi's hit films Eagle vs Shark and What We Do in the Shadows but it is just as original, just as enjoyable and just as funny. There is a unique charm about it that I absolutely adore, the world of film needs a bit more of Taika Waititi that's for sure!