Boy

Using his own childhood hometown as a luscious backdrop, Oscar®-nominated director Taika Waititi delivers a delightfully playful, delicately poignant film that gracefully scales comedy and drama and is simply a joy to watch. It is 1984, Michael Jackson rules the airwaves, and eleven-year-old “Boy” lives with his kid brother and a slew of cousins in a small, dirt-poor community tucked away amongst the lazy beaches of rural New Zealand. Boy spends his days trying to impress crush Chardonnay with his “Thriller” dance moves and fantasizing about the day his father will come home from jail to take him on amazing adventures. When his father finally does return, it is not for familial bonding, but to dig up the bag of money he hid while running from the police and to set up in the garage with his gang of hapless hooligans. It isn’t long before Boy realizes that his father is not the combination war hero/deep sea diver/rugby captain that he imagined him to be — but a loutish, selfish buffoon whose opulent delusions are even more childish than his own. It is a coming of age story for both father and son.