Boy

Boy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Taika Waititi
Produced by	Cliff Curtis Ainsley Gardener Emanuel Michael
Written by	Taika Waititi
Starring	James Rolleston Taika Waititi Luke crone Cohen Holloway Pana Hema Taylor
Music by	The Phoenix Foundation
Cinematography	Adam Clark
Editing by	Chris Plummer
Distributed by	Transmission
Release date(s)	March 25, 2010 (2010-03-25)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	‹See Tfd› New Zealand
Language	English/Maori

Boy is a 2010 New Zealand coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Taika Waititi and financed by the New Zealand Film Commission. In New Zealand, the film has eclipsed previous records for a first week's box office takings for a local production.^[1] Boy is the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time.^[2]

The soundtrack to Boy features New Zealand artists such as The Phoenix Foundation, who previously appeared in Waititi's film Eagle vs Shark.

Plot

It's 1984, and Michael Jackson is king - even in Waihau Bay, New Zealand. Here we meet Boy, an 11-year-old who lives on a farm with his gran, a goat called Leaf, his younger brother, Rocky (who thinks he has super powers) and several cousins. Shortly after Gran leaves for a tangihanga(funeral) in Wellington for a week, Boy's father, Alamein, appears out of the blue. Having imagined a heroic version of his father during his absence, Boy comes face to face with the real version - an incompetent hoodlum who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years before.

Cast

• James Rolleston as Boy
• Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu as Rocky
• Taika Waititi as Alamein
• Moerangi Tihore as Dynasty
• Cherilee Martin as Kelly
• RickyLee Waipuka-Russell as Chardonnay
• Haze Reweti as Dallas
• Maakariini Butler as Murray
• Rajvinder Eria as Tane
• Rachel Hamblyn as Kingi
• Darcy Ray Flavell-Hudson as Holden
• Rachel House as Aunty Gracey
• Craig Hall as Mr Langston
• Waihoroi Shortland as Weirdo
• Cohen Holloway as Chuppa
• Pana Hema Taylor as Juju
• Mavis Paenga as Nan

Production

Waititi started developing Boy soon after finishing Two Cars, One Night and it first emerged as a film called Choice. It was accepted into the Sundance Writer's Lab in 2005 where Waititi workshopped it with script writers Frank Pierson, Susan Shilliday, David Benioff and Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. Instead of making Boy his first film Waititi went on to make Eagle vs Shark and continued to develop the screenplay over the next three years. When the script was finally ready there was a small window of opportunity in which to make it.

Waititi dropped the title Choice because he felt that it would not translate to international audiences, and the film was retitled The Volcano. “It was a big pain about this kid’s potential to be bigger than he is or just bloom or explode... So it was a character in the script as well. When we were shooting the film it was still called Volcano and during the editing. We ended up cutting a lot of the stuff out,” he says.^[3]

Waititi wanted to shoot the film where he grew up in Waihau Bay. It was a summer film but impossible to shoot in the height of summer due to the popularity of the area as a fishing and holiday destination. The film features the maize fields and the maize is harvested from late April.^[4] Boy was shot entirely in the area of Waihau Bay, New Zealand.^[4] James Rolleston was never actually intended to play the lead role of "Boy". Rolleston originally turned up on set for a costume fitting as an extra and after short deliberation the teen was offered the role.^[5][6]

Release

Boy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2010.^[7] It competed in the "World Cinema – Dramatic" category.^[8]

Reception

Critical response

Based on 28 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 86%, with an average score of 7.3/10.^[9] Peter Calder of The New Zealand Herald gave the film five out of five stars, he praised the performances by the three main actors and said "it's hard to praise too highly the pitch-perfect tone of this movie."^[10]

Box office

On release in New Zealand the film topped the box office receipts for the week, earning more on its opening day than any previous New Zealand film.^[11] The film grossed nearly $900,000 in its first seven days beating Alice in Wonderland and homegrown pictures Whale Rider and The World's Fastest Indian. It also climbed above international kid blockbuster How to Train Your Dragon and mythical action flick Clash of the Titans.^[1] Boy then went on to become the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time taking over The World's Fastest Indian which held the position for five years.^[12]

References

External links

• Official website
• Boy at the Internet Movie Database
• Boy at Rotten Tomatoes