When Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison, Paper Planes) arrives at his latest foster home, child services officer Paula Hall (Rachel House, White Lies) runs through the teenager’s past indiscretions. The list includes the kind of childhood tomfoolery many kids are guilty of — spitting, breaking stuff, defacing stuff, kicking stuff, loitering and graffiti, for example — but it’s enough for Paula to deem him ‘a bad egg’.
Her over-the-top reaction is indicative of things to come, as is the response from Ricky’s new carers. The caring, irreverent Bella (Rima Te Wiata, Housebound) makes kindly jokes, while bushman Hec (Sam Neill, The Daughter) stays brusque, grizzled and mostly silent.
More than a little fantastical, overflowing with equal amounts of heartfelt emotion and laugh-out-loud humour, and largely set in overgrown New Zealand terrain that’s both tough and beautiful, Hunt for the Wilderpeople doesn’t just share many of its traits with its characters — it turns their offbeat dynamic into a larger-than-life movie adventure. And though so-called troublemaker Ricky may initially seem a destabilising force, he swiftly becomes anything but. He might be a hoodie-wearing gangster wannabe who keeps running away, names his pet dog Tupac, writes haikus about maggots, and talks about living the ‘skuxx life’, but he’s also just looking for a place to belong, and he’s willing to spend months trampling through the bush to prove it.
Indeed, that’s where Ricky ends up when tragedy strikes, the long arm of the government threatens to send him to juvenile detention, and Hec reluctantly comes looking for him. With ‘no child left behind’ her personal mantra, Paula is soon on their trail; however this odd couple isn’t easily found. Instead, Hec teaches Ricky wilderness survival skills, the pair tries to evade the cops, hunters and media tracking their every move, and an unlikely bond forms in the process. Readers acquainted with Barry Crump’s 1986 novel Wild Pork and Watercress — or just the lively ways of the outdoorsy Crump himself — will be able to predict the energetic antics that eventuate. Audiences aware of writer/director/actor Taika Waititi’s fondness for unconventional family relationships, as seen in his previous three low-key comedies Eagle vs Shark, Boy and What We Do in the Shadows, will similarly be able to foresee the feature’s emotional arc.
While there may be little that’s surprising about the underdog narrative, coming-of-age and coming-together themes, and buoyant, bittersweet feelings at the heart of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, in Waititi’s hands, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. In fact, it’s his distinctive sensibilities that ensure his latest feature remains an unfettered, effervescent delight whether it’s comparing the plight of its protagonists to Rambo, watching Ricky and Paula argue about which Terminator they’d be, or nodding to Thelma & Louise in its car chase climax.
There’s more than just rampant movie references propping up the film, of course, or deadpan dialogue that delivers jokes at a gleefully hectic rate, or underplayed performances by Dennison at his cheekiest and Neill at his most gruffly funny. There’s also simmering sincerity from a screenplay that truly gets to the core of the outsider experience even in such outlandish circumstances, and understands why the movie’s two main misfits forge a connection over more than just mischief and mayhem.
Waititi’s achievements don’t end there, with Hunt for the Wilderpeople as accomplished in the technical domain as it in combining heart, hilarity, and insight. A sense of vibrancy infects everything from the green-drenched imagery that’s lovingly lensed by cinematographer Lachlan Milne (Not Suitable for Children) and frequently frames the feature’s leads as an off-kilter team, to snappy editing that maximises both comic timing and the film’s more tender moments, to an ’80’s-esque, alternatingly synth-heavy and choral-laced score. Ricky and Hec brand their on-screen exploits ‘majestical’ (while bickering over whether that’s actually a word, naturally), and it’s difficult to disagree with the ever-enjoyable duo. It seems that the fourth time is the charm for Waititi — or it would if his resume wasn’t already littered with the type of earnest, amusing, enchanting and endearing efforts he so expertly crafts again here.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Director: Taika Waititi
New Zealand, 2016, 93 mins
Release date: May 26
Distributor: Madman
Rated: PG
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