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Boy

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Boy

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Mature

Mature

Suitable for mature persons.

NOTE: Mature themes, coarse language, drug use and violence

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4.7 out of 5 stars Based on 20 Customer Ratings

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"Great kiwi film"
5 stars"
Purchased on Mighty Ape

Awesome

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
"Taika’s Best Work"
5 stars"
Purchased on Mighty Ape

Google 'Taika Waititi Michael Jackson’ and you’ll get the perfect idea of what this film is. A New Zealand Film about a boy nicknamed Boy who dreams of a better life, with a cool Dad and a chance to meet Michael Jackson. This blu-ray edition is also well made, and worth the purchase.

Description

Boy is now on Blu-ray! This 2010 New Zealand coming-of-age comedy-drama movie (the #1 NZ film of all time) is written and directed by Taika Waititi.

Boy is a dreamer who loves Michael Jackson. He lives with his brother Rocky, a tribe of deserted cousins and his Nan. Boy’s other hero, his father, Alamein, is the subject of Boy’s fantasies and he imagines him as a deep sea diver, war hero and a close relation of Michael Jackson (he can even dance like him). In reality he’s in the can for robbery. When Alamein returns home after seven years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered, find his own potential and learn to get along without the hero he had been hoping for.

Awards

  • Won NZ Film Awards for: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor Taika Waititi, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography. Received 6 other nominations including Best Lead Actor James Rolleston
  • Won Most Popular Feature Film, Melbourne International Film Festival 2010
  • Won Audience Award for Best Feature Film, Sydney Film Festival 2010
  • Won Audience Award, Best International Feature Film AFI Fest 2010
  • Won Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix, Best Feature Film Berlin International Film Festival 2010
  • Nominated Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2010
  • Nominated Asia Pacific Screen Award, Best Children's Feature Film 2010

Boy Movie Review

"Boy (James Rolleston) lives with his little brother Rocky (Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu) and an odd assortment of relatives and baffling blood relations on a rural island off the East Coast of New Zealand. His grandmother usually takes care of him, but she's often MIA, leaving Boy to fend for himself and the unruly others. Where are his parents, you ask? Well, Boy's mom died giving birth to his sibling and his father, Alamein (Taika Waititi, Green Lantern), is in jail for robbery. Obsessed with Michael Jackson, Boy hopes his dad will come home soon and take him to see his favorite performer (it is 1984, after all). When Alamein does finally make his way back into his son's life, he is everything the long hours of pre-adolescent daydreaming has imagined. He's also brought along a bad habit of slacking, smoking weed, and hanging out with his band of buddies known as The Crazy Horses. Soon, Alamein's motives come into question, and Boy must figure out what he loves more-his son, or something else.

…the filmmaker is also featured as one of our leads, the long lost father of our impressionable title character, and he does a great job of playing failed hero worship. He's everything his myth suggests, and significantly less…He understands the charm of addled eccentricity and parlays his performance into something close to endearing. More significantly, he's grown as a filmmaker. He recognizes that, unless he is aiming for his own obtuse idiosyncrasy akin to Napoleon Dynamite, he has to ground his movie in some manner of reality. In his title character, he does just that, and the back and forth between truth and the unconventional is excellent.

Similarly, we can get behind this story since it focuses almost exclusively on how coming of age often requires the confrontation of the uncomfortable. Boy believes his dad is the bee's knees, and when Waititi first arrives back on the scene, he seems to suggest the same. But as levels of deceit disrupt the fun and as Boy comes to see his father for who he really is, the emotional heft said discovery brings is potent. So if the Michael Jackson material. Since the movie is set in 1984, we can accept the almost god-like worship of the controversial superstar. There are no winks to the camera as Boy fantasizes his dad in Thriller-era poses, though some in the audience may impose their own pedophilic jokes on the entire set-up. Motive is also a disrupting force. Once Boy starts to believe that his dad cares more about some money stashed on the property and not his own son, the shift becomes seismic. Add in the lingering issues regarding his mother's death and the dynamic between himself and the rest of his quasi-kin and you've got a terrific motion picture.

Indeed, Boy ranks right up there with some of the best coming-of-age movies ever. It provides a unique backdrop—the Maori community of New Zealand—that even our current cultural fascination with the country has yet to fully uncover. There's the numerous pop art references (Boy's brother believes he is a Jedi, while Boy eventually calls his Dad “Shogun”) and the attention to native heritage and detail is wonderful. Unlike other films that throw sex in the mix as the means of maturity (name one recent example that doesn't have some awkward teen boy chasing an ethereal female version of themselves. Go on. We'll wait.), this is a pure parent/child challenge. It's about missing said guidance at a young age and overlooking obvious common sense warning signs just to have a bit more of it in your still forming life. We all put people on pedestals only to knock them off when the deceive or disappoint. Boy argues for the necessity of said regular rite of passage. After all, once they're down off the block, you can finally see the source of your struggles eye to eye.

..Equally endearing and bizarre, Boy is one of the best movies of its kind, especially in light of how post-modern movies views the art of growing up. It's a winning and worthwhile look at something that's both universal and highly personal." DVD Verdict US

Release date Australia
December 4th, 2013
Movie Format
Blu-ray Region
  • Region B
Aspect Ratio
  • 1.85 : 1
Language
English
Length (Minutes)
85
Number of Discs
1
Country of Production
  • New Zealand
Genre
Box Dimensions (mm)
140x175x15
UPC
5050582971835
All-time sales rank
Top 5000
Product ID
21766695

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