Hunt For The Wilderpeople is possibly the best movie so far this year

A CHARMING romp about misfits from our cousins across the ditch is quite possibly the best movie so far this year. Go see it, now.

REVIEW

TAIKA Waititi likes to make movies about misfits and outcasts, the kind of characters audiences can identify with because no one ever feels like they belong, not completely.

Just like his 2011 masterpiece Boy, Waititi has a knack for casting irresistibly charming young lads as his leads, this time with Julian Dennison.

Ricky Baker is a ‘bad egg’ orphan whose ambition in life is to be a rapper, drug dealer and die in a blaze of glory. Unwanted, Ricky is placed with the last foster family who will take him. But he’s a city kid out of his element in his new home in the gorgeous New Zealand bush.

A series of events force him and the curmudgeonly ‘Uncle’ Hector into the bush where they’re stuck for six weeks after Hector (a pitch perfect Sam Neill) fractures his ankle. When the unlikely pair emerge they find out there’s a national manhunt for them, the assumption that Hector has kidnapped Ricky.

Star in the making Julian Dennison.

An awkward encounter and misunderstanding with three hunters turn them both into outlaws. With their two dogs Tupac and Zag in tow, Ricky and Hector try to survive in the bush, battling the weather and evading the authorities, including a determined yet ridiculous child welfare officer intent on putting Ricky in juvie.

Hector is running from a world that’s never accepted him, having previously served a sentence for manslaughter. He finds comfort in the solace of “going bush” and even though he’s an unlikely companion for the wannabe gangster Ricky, for all their differences, they’re perfectly matched adventure buddies.

Based on rugged outdoorsman Barry Crump’s 1986 book Wild Pork and Watercress, Hunt For The Wilderpeople carries forth the tradition of glorifying the outlaw, fighting against an uncaring and absurd state. In this case, the empathy shown to these two charming rebels is completely justified. For all their defiance, they’re just looking to belong.

Lessons in gun safety.

As he has shown with past projects, Waititi has a whimsical sensibility not dissimilar to Wes Anderson. But where Anderson can sometimes border on twee, there’s not of whiff of inauthenticity or pretension in what Waititi puts on screen. A director to watch, his clever script crackles with wit and the visual choices he makes along with his musical cues and soundtrack shows a sophisticated understanding of tone.

Waititi is also able to show off his native land in the beautiful landscape shots, and give you a sense of its people and their gumption. He is one of the most exciting filmmakers to come out of New Zealand in recent years.

And you know Waititi is going to have a big career, he’s already been signed by Marvel to direct the next Thor instalment in Australia later this year.

While Hunt For The Wilderpeople initially comes off as a comedy, it actually defies genre. It may be dead funny but it’s so much more than that. The film oozes heart, warmth and spunk, and challenges you to not completely fall in love with it. We’re certain you will. It’s quite possibly the best movie (so far) this year.

Rating: 5/5

Hunt For The Wilderpeople open in cinemas on Thursday, May 26.

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L-R: Sam Neill and Julian Dennison in a scene from New Zealand film Hunt for the Wilderpeople