Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) is the film Taika Waititi made before Marvel, and probably his best. Ricky is thirteen, overweight, into gangsta rap, and has been thrown out of every foster placement. He is sent to Bella and Hec in the New Zealand bush. Bella genuinely loves him. Then Bella dies suddenly and child services come to take him back. Ricky runs into the bush, the sour Hec has to follow, and the two of them turn into fugitives with a nationwide manhunt behind them. Waititi's achievement is holding comedy and grief in the same scene. The minister's eulogy at Bella's funeral is both ridiculous and devastating, and the film keeps that balance all the way through. Sam Neill barely speaks and Julian Dennison never stops, and the rhythm of the whole film lives between them. It is adapted from Barry Crump's novel Wild Pork and Watercress. It became the highest grossing local film in New Zealand history at the time. The landscape photography is among the best in this kind of film, and shows a side of New Zealand that Lord of the Rings did not. It runs 101 minutes. Good for: comedy drama, road movies, and the outdoors. Fine with teenagers. Less good for: there is swearing, a death is central to it, and some viewers find the humour too odd.