Boy

By only his second movie, it seems like Taika had found his style and the necessary writing elements to make an excellent compelling movie. Boy is all Taika asking a ‘what if’ question about his past. At a very young age, his father died. In Boy, Taika is looking at what may have happened if it was his mother instead. As are with most of Taika’s movies, the child actors are great, however, I did find that Boy’s performance did end up somewhat stiff at times. The movie itself was funny, with that gut punch of emotion that Taika’s so good at. The setting is fantastic, and it presents an accurate representation of what it may be like to have grown up in an indigenous village in the 80s. It is easy to see that this is one of Taika’s earlier films due to the lack of compelling dialogue. The characters are overall not quite as deep as they should be (in my opinion) and I think that was one of the largest flaws. There are some characters that are fleshed out, mostly Boy and the Dad. But, other than that, most of the characters are forgotten about and don’t get to go through their necessary arc. There are also a few characters that seem like they should have had a larger role, but, overall did not. Also, this one’s slightly nitpicky, but some of the shots didn’t seem to be quite right. That being said, I can’t say that I love this movie more. There are so many moments that are extremely memorable, and the movie is extremely fun. It’s always interesting going into a director’s roots, Boy is one of the best examples of this. 9.2/10