Boy, an 11-year-old child and devout Michael Jackson fan who lives on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, gets a chance to know his absentee criminal father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.
A performer and comedian before becoming a filmmaker, Waititi uses his comic sensibilities to keep Boy from becoming mawkish or clichéd. He has created a coming-of-age tale that is truly original.
The momentum from the opening dissipates early and without a real engine pushing the movie foward, it begins to drag...the film is 87 minutes and feels like it's 2 hours.
Rolleston's winning presence doubtless has much to do with the fact that Boy is a record-breaking hit in its home country, but there's some salt mixed in with the film's sugar.
Waititi does a nice tonal juggling act, balancing eccentric characters, a 1980s setting, child-drawn animation and Maori-inflected restagings of Michael Jackson videos with the painful consequences of parental neglect.
Even the inevitable flaws of the low-budget production are winning, showcasing as they do the narrative artistry that makes Boy so distinctive amid current factory-written studio productions.
