I recently picked this up randomly at the video store. Recognizing one of the leads as a member of Flight of the Conchords , I figured what the heck.
Wow. I laughed my ass off. I understand the instant criticism must have been that it was going the Napolean Dynamite route, and it was. But it was so much better in many ways. Lily, the lead starts of as a mousy, waif of a geek…and I was completely put off by her. But by the end I found myself strangely attracted. And Jarrod starts off as an asshole…ends the movie as an asshole…but at least a sympathetic asshole. It was an adorable tale and one that will soon grace my video library.
Oh…and the soundtrack was pretty amazing too. M Ward’s cover of Bowies “Let’s Dance” was perfectly bittersweet and it introduced me the the Phoenix Foundation…awesome, awesome awesome band.
Anyway…if there was already a thread about this I appologize. But is there any love out there for this little gem?
I saw this at the theatre during it’s very limited run. I thought it was great. In one light, I started thinking this was the “other view” of New Zealand from “The Whale Rider”.
But as I watched, I could also see why this movie would not do well with most people. The same ones who didn’t get “Napolean Dynamite” would certainly not appreciate this.
I knew once she made up the excuse for her co-worker attending the lesbian party, that I would enjoy this movie. And the big climax when he meets his old school nemesis had me in tears, I was laughing so hard !
Huh. I thought this was going to be one of those “Which would win, if a grizzly bear and a polar bear fought each other?” kinds of threads. I was going to suggest that the water in the shark tank be kept shallow for a fair fight.
To further derail the thread, this reminds me of a rather entertaining book by Chris Bachelder called Bear v. Shark which was a satire of American culture which took place in an unspecified future time and involved a big event in Las Vegas (which seceded from the United States for unexplained reasons) called Bear v. Shark II (pronounced “Bear v Shark,” not “Bear versus Shark”), a sporting event based on this basic premise:
“Given a relatively level playing field — i.e., water deep enough so that a shark could maneuver proficiently but shallow enough so that a bear could stand and operate with its characteristic dexterity — who would win in a fight between a bear and a shark?”
(Bachelder actually asked a number of biologists this question and got back some answers, which he reprints in the book.) The event is fought using a computer-generated bear and shark. In Bear v. Shark I, the shark won, but bear supporters claim this is only due to the fact that the bear was accidentially programmed with a smaller-than-normal head. (The book ends before the competition does, but the promoters are already preparing for Bear v. Shark III.)
Saw this in the theater, and was terribly disappointed. As usual, the part of an unattractive girl was played by an attractive woman with a poor hairstyle. She made it worse by spending most of the film with her mouth screwed up into a weird shape.
It is very much like the execrable “Napoleon Dynamite”…a film about outcasts made by the in-crowd. Both films are laughing at the social rejects rather than with them.
I wanted to like it, and just about succeeded. Jemaine Clement’s character is fairly unlikeable. The female lead (Loren Horsley) is good; her character deserves better than she gets. Contrived, and the laughs are a little too thin to hide it.