Movie Review: Hunt For The Wilderpeople

The Revenant had a lot of things (too many things, even), but it didn't have the heart, humour and hoodies of Taika Waititi's Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Following on from the New Zealand director’s low-key Boy and deadpan vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows—as well as a brief appearance in Green Lantern, but enough about that—Hunt for the Wilderpeople shows Waititi in fine form, masterfully balancing offbeat, sometimes black comedy with heartbreaking pathos.

It’s a beautiful, bittersweet buddy movie with an unlikely comic pair in screen veteran Sam Neill and teenager Julian Dennison (who, with his temperament and a beanie, is like a live-action Cartman). It also outdoes The Revenant, if we’re ranking features in which outdoorsmen must survive the elements and wrestle bloodthirsty animals. Here, it’s a boar. And watching Neill tussle with it is more thrilling then any of the bear-on-Leo action that won DiCaprio an Oscar.

Dennison plays Ricky Baker, a "bad egg" orphan with an array of hip-hop hoodies who can’t keep from causing trouble. We meet him after he’s been shipped off to a remote farm to live with the big-hearted Aunt Bella (the lovely Rima Te Wiata) and her quiet husband, Hector (Neill). With little but juvenile detention waiting for him back in the city, Ricky gives up on running away from home and eventually takes to country-living with his new family and pet dog. (He christens the pup, “Tupac”.) But after a few months, their idyllic, isolated existence is rocked by tragedy.

Fearing a stint at juvie, Ricky and his reluctant Uncle Hec decide to make a run for it, into the bush, with the Terminatrix social worker Paula (Rachel House) and the NZ police on their tail. As the weeks stretch on, their folk hero status among Kiwis grows. Hec teaches Ricky how to survive in the wilderness. Ricky—an aspiring gangsta who waxes lyrically about the “skuxx life”—teaches Hec the appropriate lingo for sticking up fellow campers for their swag. As they put it, “s*** gets real.” Oh, and they learn about the value of family and companionship too.

Adapted by Waititi from Barry Crump’s novel Wild Pork and Watercress, Hunt for the Wilderpeople takes the familiar tropes of similar family films and contorts them into something unexpected. (Much like the similar-in-tone Moonrise Kingdom, the flick’s occasional flourishes of violence and carnage work as jolts of adrenaline to keep you from thinking you’ve ever got the plot pegged.)

Photographed beautifully by Lachlan Milne, Hunt for the Wilderpeople also finds surprise comedy in its choral score (again, like Moonrise Kingdom) and its crafty, witty editing. Waititi will use every technician at his disposal to squeeze in laughs wherever possible.

Neill is clearly relishing his first leading role in too, too, long, deploying appropriate grizzliness without stumbling into the realm of cliché. (Jack Palance perfected that in City Slickers, so it’s nice to have a new type to use as a benchmark.) It’s a rare comedic turn from him—and he’s funny as hell—but the seasoned pro is still plenty adept at wringing tears when Wilderpeople reaches for the emotional high-notes.

Dennison is similarly endearing and dynamic without being infuriating; a bear trap most young actors playing troublemaking teens fall into. Around them is an army of pitch-perfect supporting players, sometimes just for a scene or two (including Rhys Darby as a lone wolf named “Psycho Sam” and Troy Kingi as a Ricky Baker superfan). Together, under Waititi’s direction, they’ve produced one of 2016’s best, warmest and wildest comedies.

As a filmmaker, Taika just keeps getting better. Next up is a Marvel movie. As a result of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, he has put me in the foreign position of actually anticipating a Thor.

4.5/5

In cinemas May 26. Rated PG for mild themes and coarse language.