Category Archives: Film Fodder

“Repo!” creators return with new macabre musical “The Devil’s Carnival”

When director Darren Lynn Bousman (best known for his work on Saw II–IV) and writer Terrance Zdunich took the dystopian musical stage show they had been working on and put it to film, the result was 2008’s Repo! The Genetic Opera. With an unlikely ensemble cast including Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Anthony Head, Skinny Puppy‘s Nivek Ogre, opera singer Sarah Brightman, Goodfellas‘ Paul Sorvino, The Devil’s Rejects‘ Bill Moseley, Paris Hilton and Zdunich as the GraveRobber, Repo! became a cult hit despite lack of support from Lionsgate. The film’s success was due in large part to the touring road shows Bousman and Zdunich put together, encouraging fans to arrive in costume, sing along Rocky Horror Picture Show style and expect more than just a movie screening.

Bousman and Zdunich are taking a similar approach with their new film The Devil’s Carnival, a surreal story that follows a repentant father (The Boondock Saints‘ Sean Patrick Flanery), a kleptomaniac (Briana Evigan) and a naive teenager (Canadian songstress Jessica Lowndes) to hell. But the hell Bousman and Zdunich have created is a surreal Fellini-esque carnival with Zdunich himself presiding as Lucifer. Though some of the Repo! cast has returned (Sorvino plays God, J. LaRose is The Major, Moseley is a Magician and Ogre is The Twin, for example), it also features a new eccentric ensemble that includes theatrical songstress Emilie Autumn, Slipknot percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan (who, ironically, does not play a clown), Five Finger Death Punch‘s Ivan Moody (who does play a clown) and a dwarf named Mighty Mike from the MiniKiss dwarf tribute band.

In true sideshow fashion, The Devil’s Carnival hit the road last month to help spread the devil’s morality tales (based on famous fables). Eschewing the typical Hollywood formula, Bousman and Zdunich are funding most of the film and tour themselves, which is a risky, yet confident move. With a week left on the tour, Zdunich talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the differences between making Repo! and The Devil’s Carnival, what fans can expect from the live experience and his self-published comic book The Molting.

Ivan Moody as The Hobo Clown

With Repo! you did road shows like this one out of necessity since the studio wasn’t doing much to promote that film. Did you just decide to bypass a studio altogether with The Devil’s Carnival when planning this tour?

With Repo! it was reactive whereas with this it’s proactive. With Repo! we had no idea that was the road we’d be taking until we got some horrible reviews and Lionsgate said it was going to go straight to the bottom of DVD bins. We knew that it was meant to be seen live with a crowd, so we just decided on a whim to do a small tour. With this we decided to just lead with what worked, get it in front of the audience we think will enjoy, but do it much more ambitiously this time. We’re doing 33 cities in five-and-a-half weeks. Our shows end around 1 a.m., then we hop in a van and drive straight to the next city. It’s crazy, it’s nonstop and we haven’t really had a day off yet. It’s starting to show with my voice. I’m glad I don’t have to sing every night and I just have to speak.

The Devil’s Carnival is a musical like Repo…

Yeah. I hate that word just because I think it conjures up something that we’re kind of not. But, yes, there is music and people are singing. But it’s not an opera. With Repo, a majority of it was music and songs. This is about a 50/50 mix of spoken dialogue and songs. Unlike traditional musicals, in this people aren’t singing their emotions, they’re not suddenly having a feeling and bursting into song. The characters are carnies, so all the songs are in the context of a performance. They’re either barking down attendees to play a game or what have you, but all the songs function as actual performances. It helps you buy into that world a little easier than “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” or something like that.

Terrence Zdunich as Lucifer

You worked with a lot of the same people on Repo and The Devil’s Carnival, yet there are also a lot of new faces such as Emilie Autumn, Slipknot’s Clown and others in this film. How did you go about casting this film?

It’s a mix. Some of it is you want to work with your friends, especially if they’re talented and right for the roles. With some of the Repo alumni that was certainly the case. But Darren and I are fanboys at heart, so we want to work with people that we dig. Emilie Autumn, for example. I’m a huge fan of her work, so I still have to pinch myself a little bit and not be a fanboy when I’m trying to work with her and be professional. But we’ve been very fortunate with everyone that’s gotten involved. You mentioned Slipknot, that dude sells out gigantic amphitheaters and he’s willing to do our little indie horror musical. And not just do it, but he’s been on the road with us for a couple of stops, he came out in Iowa and it really does feel like a family affair. I think, or I like to believe at least, that’s because the project is cool and we’ve created an environment where people feel like we’re doing art. So they’re responding to that instead of what is typical in Hollywood, which is a paycheck or career-launching opportunity or something like that. I think the point here is that they feel creative about it and I think it shows in the final product. The entire film and the road tour was done for $300, 000. But when you watch it, no one would ever assume that. It looks like $10 million. That’s because everyone involved felt passionate about it and really went way beyond what should be expect for what we were paying them. From the makeup to the costumes, the production value is humongous and I’m very proud of it.

You have about a week left on the tour. How has the reception been so far?

So far it’s been a success. Every night has been a great performance and some have been greater than others in terms of audience attendance. But we haven’t had a night where people haven’t come out and acted like lunatics and that’s what we want to be a part of.

Emilie Autumn as The Painted Doll

Aside from showing the film, what else is going on on this tour?

Every stop is a little different. But the basic lineup is we have some sort of local performer open up with either burlesque or we’ve had knife jugglers, glass eaters and other sideshow carnie stuff. We have a live MC that travels with us and she sort of narrates a portion of the evening, which includes a ten-minute featurette of Repo stuff no one’s seen. It kind of shows how we, at least, make dark musical films. It’s a look behind the process which, of course, leads into The Devil’s Carnival. Then Darren and I do a Q&A at the end, then we hang out and meet some of our fans. Every night is an event, not just a film, which is what we aim to do.

Do you plan on releasing this on DVD or will you just keep touring small theaters with it?

Eventually, yes. We’ve had a lot of discussions about that the future really is dependent on how this tour goes. Right now it’s going well. We’re trying to create an event that can’t be downloaded, not just because we don’t want people stealing our shit, but because it’s something you want to be here for. You wouldn’t want to just watch it on your phone or however you choose to listen to music and watch movies now. So we’re trying to create an event that makes you want to go to the theater. As such, right now we’re keeping it very exclusive. Ultimately, of course we’re going to have some other form where people that aren’t here can see it. But we’re trying to figure out some way to package the event. I don’t know if that’s going to resemble something like the Blue Man Group, where this thing goes on, or if it’s going to be a DVD experience that somehow tries to be as unorthodox as what we’re doing. I think “here’s the disc, go spend 20 bucks on the DVD” would sort of be missing the point of what we’re doing with it. Once we have it figured out, we’ll let people know.

Is there a studio involved with it at all at this point?

It’s completely independent. We have Darren’s production company and some investors in Florida called the Film Funding Alliance who are responsible for financing. This thing is conceived as a series, sort of our anti-Glee, but I’d like that to be a Glee that’s on the road where we come out maybe a couple of times a year and the story continues. I haven’t seen anything like that, so not only as an artist, but as a fanboy, that’s something I want to see. So that’s what we’re working and if some more formal Hollywood-type system gets behind it, we’re not opposed to that. But I think they wouldn’t know what to do with this.

When you refer to it as a series, do you mean you have plans to do sequels or do you mean the live experience will change with the same film being shown?

Sean Patrick Flanery as John, a grieving father

This is actually part one and it’s a mythology that centers around Aesop’s Fables. So it has that sort of Tales from the Crypt-esque element where the universe is set up in such a way that you can keep using music to explore more than 600 fables, with the heaven-and-hell mythologies wrapped around it. It’s one part film series, one part rock concert.

In between this and Repo you’ve been doing a comic book series called The Molting. What are your plans for that story?

I’m through issue 7, but there’s been a bit of a hiatus because of The Devil’s Carnival. It’s an independent project and I’m not only writing it, but illustrating it. It’s a gigantic undertaking. Right now I think I’m about 350 pages into what will ultimately be a 600-page graphic novel. I’m going to continue doing that. The releasing of issues might be a tad sporadic, but unless my hands get chopped off I’m going to keep plugging away at that.

I’ve been doing it my way and there are pros and cons to that. The biggest con is money and outreach, of course. I’m actually printing it as opposed to making it an online comic because there’s something about reading something tangible and smelling the ink that I suppose gets me off, so I’ve been resisting letting it go a different way. But I’ll probably look into finding a distributor to bind it and help me deal with that larger format because it really is written as one complete work.

The Devil’s Carnival. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Briana Evigan, Jessica Lowndes, Terrance Zdunich, Emilie Autumn, Ivan Moody, Marc Senter, Bill Moseley, Nivek Ogre, Dayton Callie and Paul Sorvino. Not rated. www.thedevilscarnival.com.

“The Avengers” assemble for stellar superhero team-up

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After years of solo stories, post-credit appearances by Samuel L. Jackson and enough speculation to fuel a comic con’s worth of nerdgasms, The Avengers have finally assembled for a 3-D spectacle that brings together some of Marvel‘s greatest heroes in ways they’ve never been seen before. And the fact that this ensemble of superheroes is directed by Joss Whedon only amps the geekdom up that much more.

Captain America (Chris Evans) prepares to suit up in "The Avengers." Photo by Zade Rosenthal

With the pieces all put in place over the past few years with The Incredible Hulk, both Iron Man movies, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, not much backstory is needed for The Avengers. Which leaves Whedon with the task of introducing the characters to each other and explaining how and why they have all come together. In steps Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the nemesis of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), to steal the powerful Tesseract, an extraterrestrial power source in the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D., the government agency directed by Nick Fury (Jackson), which forces Fury to launch the abandoned Avengers Initiative.

Realizing the fate of the entire planet is at stake, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Dr. Bruce Banner (this time played by Mark Ruffalo instead of Edward Norton) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) agree to work together (reluctantly in most cases) in order to save the planet. Thor randomly shows up in a flash of lightning after they capture Loki, which leads to one of the film’s first big battle scenes as Iron Man, Captain America and Thor duke it out until they all realize their powers would be put to better use if they were combined rather than used against each other.

Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) join forces in "The Avengers"

With Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) under Loki’s control (not to mention that Loki is Thor’s adopted brother), the individual Avengers also have personal investments in this battle, which only adds to the suspense. Even though the story of a disagreeable group of heroes preventing the world from being taken over by alien forces is nothing new, Whedon is quite used to making otherwise tired concepts interesting again (remember what he did for vampires years before the Twilight craze and, more recently, for horror with The Cabin in the Woods?). And The Avengers has Whedon written all over it (quite literally, considering that he also co-wrote the script) with distinct egos, conflict amongst the team members and incredibly witty dialogue (he seems to have particular fun with the Captain’s wholesome anachronism, which makes sense considering Whedon’s best known for his clever stories about centuries-old vampires).

That being said, The Avengers also has a couple of the continuity flaws typical of most of Whedon’s previous works. For instance, it’s not clearly explained how Thor shows up, which is pretty important considering that the last time we saw him he was stuck on Asgard after the space bridge to Earth was destroyed. Nor is it explained why Banner’s Hulk goes from being an uncontrollable monster to being able to harness that rage (just when they need him the most, no less). But given the inevitability of additional sequels to all these movies, these are things that could easily be explained in subsequent Marvel Studios releases.

Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) smash in "The Avengers"

Until then, we’ll just have to be content with these heroes putting their differences aside long enough to stop the monsters attacking New York City through the portal Loki has opened from atop Stark’s skyscraper. Between the outstanding 3-D visuals (see it in IMAX if you can), the attention-grabbing dialogue, Alan Silvestri‘s bombastic score and just enough character development to keep the audience engaged, The Avengers is the big superhero team-up film comic book geeks and action movie fans alike have been waiting years to see. Now if only they can figure out a way to work Spider-Man into the next one (a post-credit scene proves there will be a next one, and another post-post-credit scene is added for an extra laugh), the universe will truly be a better place.

The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson. Rated PG-13. www.marvel.com/avengers_movie/.

Plaza Theatre fundraising festivities include “Valley Girl,” “Godzilla vs. Megalon” and more

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Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre is the city’s only remaining independent movie theater. Despite celebrating the cinema of yesteryear with events such as Professor Morte’s Silver Scream SpookShow, Blast-Off Burlesque‘s Taboo-La-La and Gorehound Productions‘ Splatter Cinema (as well as current films), the Plaza is struggling now more than ever to keep its doors open. Now a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Plaza celebrates a big weekend of events beginning with tonight’s Save the Plaza March.

Costumed supporters of this longstanding theater will begin gathering at 5 p.m. before heading down Ponce de Leon Ave. at 5:30 p.m. This parade of kooky Plaza performers and anyone else who wants to dress up and join the cause will turn left after a few blocks before heading back up North Ave. and returning at the Plaza around 7 p.m.

The fundraising festivities continue tomorrow night as the Plaza screens the totally rad ’80s romantic comedy Valley Girl at 8:30 p.m. But like most Plaza events, there will be more than just a movie screening with additional festivities beginning at 7:30 p.m. There will be silent auctions and prizes from local business such as Ria’s Bluebird, the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, Fantasyland Records, Stratosphere Skateboards, Diamond*Star*Halo, Libertine, Monster Joe Coffee (who made the Wrestling with Pop Culture and ATLRetro T-shirts, which will also be included as prizes) and many more.

The event is hosted by Blast-Off Burlesque, whose members will be on hand to hand out auction prizes and provide other costumed entertainment. Prizes will also be awarded in the ’80s costume contest and Valley Girl accent contest. And the whole event will be emceed by The Pop Culture King himself, Jon Waterhouse. Tickets are $15 with all proceeds going to the Plaza Foundation.

Saturday sees the return of the Silver Scream SpookShow, this time with a screening of Godzilla vs. Megalon. Professor Morte and his creepy crew of characters, go-go dancers and other monstrous fun will introduce the movie with the vile variety show they’ve become known for. Kids ages 12 and younger get in free to the 1 p.m. matinee, with an additional show at 10 p.m. As one of the Plaza’s marquee events in recent years, the SpookShow is the perfect followup to the previous days’ philanthropic festivities.

For more information, go to www.plazaatlanta.com.

“Lockout” features futuristic visual appeal without a lot of character

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As a director, French filmmaker Luc Besson has been responsible for contemporary action and sci-fi classics like Léon: The Professional and The Fifth Element. As a producer, he’s given us the Transporter series and Taken, movies that are as visually attractive as his earlier works, but focus more on stylish action than plot and character development. Lockout, a futuristic action movie co-written by Besson and directors James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, falls into the latter category, with hardly any attempt to create characters that are at all interesting.

Snow (Guy Pearce) is a gun-toting badass in "Lockout"

Set in the not-too-distant future, Lockout stars Guy Pearce as Snow, a government agent who has been mistakenly convicted for the death of another agent. Despite his innocence, the evidence is stacked against him and it looks as if there is no way out for him. That is until the president’s daughter (Maggie Grace) ends up trapped on a space prison where hundreds of hardened killers, rapists and other vagrants have been awakend from their pods. Snow (played with a mix of Mark Wahlberg’s bravado and Johnny Depp’s swagger, with a hint of Bruce Willis’ badass attitude) is offered one opportunity to redeem himself by going into the space station, rescuing the president’s daughter and returning her unharmed. It’s clearly a daunting task, but since Snow is such a badass with nothing to lose (and actually has something to gain if he can track down one particular inmate), of course he’s up for the challenge.

From there Lockout becomes one sci-fi derivation after another, which is all a lot of fun to watch, but not all that stimulating otherwise. Matrix-like chasm of slumbering bodies? Check. Prisoners waking up from cryo sleep a la Demolition Man? Check. Strong female character forced to standup to overwhelmingly testosterone-y odds in very Alien-like settings? You got it. And Although Snow proves to be a noble antihero and his female antagonist-turned-sidekick is also a surprisingly spry fighter, they end up relying on enough convenient coincidences that it starts to feel almost as bad as Armageddon (especially in a scene where they basically skydive from outer space, safely re-entering Earth’s atmosphere only to parachute to the surface, landing with less impact than they’d have had from jumping off a bunk bed).

"Let's skydive into the Earth's atmosphere!"

Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly much worse movies out there, especially in the sci-fi/action genre. But I guess even with his more recent productions, Besson has still been able to apply his touch even if it’s not as overt as when he has more control as a director. But this time it hardly feels like he was involved very much, even though Lockout is based on a concept he came up with and, like most of his other films, was at least partially written by him. And even with the legitimate acting skills Pearce brings to the movie, it still almost feels like a Syfy original or straight-to-DVD release. Let’s just hope the tagline for his next movie is “from the director of The Fifth Element” instead of “from the producers of Taken.”

Lockout. Directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger. Starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace. Rated PG-13. www.lockoutfilm.com.

“The Three Stooges” sticks to the slap-happy humor of the original show

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It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a century since The Three Stooges began inflicting their farcical physical comedy on America via episodic short films and other avenues. For some, the idea of Hollywood even considering trying to recreate that vaudeville vulgarity is like a

Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos) puts his pals Curly (Will Sasso, left) and Larry (Sean Hayes) in line.

proverbial slap in the face (or poke to the eye or kick to the groin, replete with cartoonish sound effects). But if there’s anyone who could possibly recreate the Stooges brand of slapstick for today’s viewing audience while maintaining the ideals that made it funny the first time around, it’s the directing duo of the Farrelly brothers, who were clearly inspired by a similar aesthetic when making movies such as There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin.

In The Three Stooges: The Movie, Moe, Larry and Curly are back (played by Chris Diamantopoulos, Will & Grace‘s Sean Hayes and MADtv‘s Will Sasso, respectively), this time as three orphans who arrive unceremoniously via a tossed duffle bag. Even as kids, the trio (looking like smaller versions of the childlike adults they will become) is oblivious to the mayhem that follows them around the orphanage, giving Sister Mary-Mengele (played with appropriate absurdity by Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s Larry David) fits. Since no one wants to adopt these three dim-witted rascals, Moe, Larry and Curly find themselves still causing chaos at the orphanage well into adulthood.

Anxious to see the Stooges (Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos, Will Sasso) go, Sister Rosemary (Jennifer Hudson) leads a joyful farewell sing-a-long.

When news comes that the orphanage will soon be shut down, the Stooges vow to come up with the money to save it. With an encouraging song from Sister Rosemary (David Otunga‘s baby mama Jennifer Hudson) to send them off, the Stooges are dragged (quite literally) into the real world, fitting in about as well as Will Ferrell’s Buddy did in Elf. It doesn’t take them long to clumsily stumble into Lydia (a bosomy Sofía Vergara) whose plot to off her rich husband unwittingly becomes the Stooges plan to quickly come up with the money to save the orphanage. Through a series of slapstick mishaps, the Stooges find themselves causing comedic chaos in a hospital nursery, woob woob woob-ing their way into upscale parties and even joining the cast of Jersey Shore (where Moe becomes a star for using his sarcasm and violent ways on Snooki and The Situation).

Though there’s no explanation as to why the Stooges look and sound like they are from the time period of the original trio, it really doesn’t matter since it just adds to the overall absurdity. In a world where sledgehammers to the face and lobsters in your pants are funny instead of fatal, the anachronism of the characters serves to further retain the nostalgia of the original show. I just wonder, assuming there will be a sequel, if we’ll ever see Shemp join in the mayhem.

The Three Stooges: The Movie. Directed by Peter & Bobby Farrelly. Starring Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos. Rated PG. www.threestooges.com.

Stuff happens in “L!fe Happens,” but none of it is all that interesting

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When one uses the term “life happens,” it’s usually a coy indication of something interesting or perhaps even a little lascivious that has occurred. Whether that occurrence was had negative consequences or fortunate results can obviously vary depending on each situation. When it comes to the new film L!fe Happens, the results are neither interesting or fortunate.

Kim (Krysten Ritter) and Deena (Kate Bosworth) reach a breaking point in "L!fe Happens)

It seems like Kim (Krysten Ritter, who co-wrote the script with director Kat Coiro) and Deena (Kate Bosworth) certainly know how to be the life of the party, which is proven on a nightly basis in the Los Angeles home they share. But when they both scramble for the last of the communal condoms one night, life literally happens when Kim gets knocked up by an Australian surfer who doesn’t stick around for long after their son is born. While Deena is still actively hanging out and hooking up, Kim’s newfound maternal duties make it difficult for her to keep up, which causes her to resent her longtime friend.

Kim’s resentment only gets stronger as Deena’s writing career begins to flourish and their much more chaste roommate Laura (Rachel Bilson) lands a spot on a reality show for virgins over the age of 21 (OK, that part is actually kind of funny). Stuck in a dead-end dog-walking job with aspirations of opening a dog mall (an idea just as stupid as it sounds), things seem a little bit hopeful when Kim meets Nicolas (Stacy Keibler‘s ex-boyfriend Geoff Stults), a hunky guy as socially awkward as Kim. But she screws that up pretty quickly, providing even more reason for self loathing.

Happily ever after.

While this sounds like the impetus for a potentially zany comedy, the results are less than conclusive. Despite the events that happen in L!fe Happens, it misses several opportunities to be as clever as it would like to be. The interaction between the characters just feels, I don’t know, phony, and there is hardly any actual interaction with the baby despite his presence in almost every scene. The biggest problem with L!fe Happens is it doesn’t feel like life is happening at all. Instead, it feels like you’re watching actors act (and it often feels like they barely had time to learn their lines before the camera started rolling). By the time the “happily ever after” conclusion arrives, you probably won’t even care about what happens to any of these dimensionless characters, let alone how cliched the whole thing turns out.

L!fe Happens. Directed by Kat Coiro. Starring Krysten Ritter, Kate Bosworth and Rachael Bilson. Rated R. www.lifehappensfilm.com.

New Zealand hit comedy “Boy” comes to U.S. theaters

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Though he is likely best known to United States audiences for his work on Flight of the Conchords, Taika Waititi is becoming a comic legend in his native New Zealand. Following the success of his 2007 romantic comedy Eagle vs Shark, Waititi had even more success with Boy, a nostalgic childhood comedy that has won pretty much every award in New Zealand. As the most celebrated and successful local film in New Zealand history, Boy has finally reached American audiences, opening in more and more theaters each week.

Set in 1984, Boy is about an 11-year-old boy named Boy (James Rolleston), who balances the responsibility of taking care of his peers while applying lingering childlike fantasies onto the real world. His obsessions with pop cultural trends of the time such as Michael Jackson‘s Thriller and E.T., coupled with his innocent stories about his estranged father Alamein (played by Waititi) being a war hero and his brother’s magical powers, make for some comical moments. Though Boy is initially delighted when his father randomly returns, it quickly becomes apparent that Alamein is as deluded about his own heroism as Boy is. While this situation would normally be a sad one, the absurdity of it all is very comical in Boy.

As the film opens in more U.S. cities today, Wititi takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about Boy‘s influences and success.

Boy deals a lot with how a child’s imagination is projected onto reality. As a result, many situations that might be sad and depressing become absurdly comical.

Yeah. One of the hardest things with this type of film is trying to find a balance between the drama and the comedy. New Zealand is known more for films that are darker in content. With a lot of the films we’ve made before, in a film like this one of the kids would be dead by the end. We always tend to hone in on the more depressing elements of kids looking after themselves and parent/child relationships.

I wanted to kind of move away from that and make an entertaining film that has light moments. And those light moments, I think, really shine out against the dark moments. The fantasy thing was very important to me with the three Boy characters: Boy, Rocky and the dad. They’re all trying to deal with what’s going on in their world surrounding the death of this woman and all of them are projecting fantasy onto reality to try and deal with what happened, to justify what happened, to cope with the feeling of abandonment or just to move away from the guilt. Rocky’s fantasies manifest in the drawings and the very simple ways he sees what’s going on in the real world. Boy is a little bit more advanced, so he has live-action cutaways and flashbacks, some of them are real, some are not, so it’s a blur. Alamein’s fantasies show themselves in the real world and the physical way he presents himself – changing his hair and his jacket, the way he looks, changing his name. He’s constantly trying to remove himself from who he really is, to absolve himself in some sort of way.

I like his throne with the antlers strategically placed directly behind his head so they appear to be coming out of his head.

Boy (James Rolleston) aspires to be like his father.

Yeah, exactly. It’s like, “I’m going to be a king now.” It’s this lunatic loser way of elevating your status by surrounding yourself with very low status and weak people.

The story was inspired somewhat by your own childhood experiences and it was actually filmed in the house where you grew up.

Yeah. That was my house it was shot in and I went to that school, so I grew up with a lot of kids. There was a certain degree of freedom, in the ’80s especially, that you don’t see kids getting these days. These days people are organizing play dates for their kids and it’s very regimented and scripted: Wednesday, 2-4, you have a play date with Tommy. When I grew up it was like: Wednesday, bye bye, I don’t want to see you until dark. It was a very different time and growing up there was a very cool upbringing, something I feel not many people really experience, especially not here. It’s a new thing to see on film.

There were gangs around us and there was dope and pot and stuff, but the actual conventions of the narrative were made up and draped against the backdrop of a very authentic setting.

Boy has a lot of responsibility amongst the other kids. Did he assume those responsibilities or were they assigned to him in some way? Was it a common thing in New Zealand at that time for one kid to assume leadership of a group of unsupervised kids?

Yeah, we used to look after each other. When I was probably, like, 6, my older cousin, who was probably 9 or 10, used to make my lunch for me in the mornings. All the kids would walk to school together and look after each other. Kids had a lot more responsibility for themselves. I think socially that makes you a little bit stronger because you learn how to deal with situations and you’re less scared of conflict.

You play Alamein, the father. Why did you choose to take on that role yourself?

I just thought he needed to be incredibly good looking.

I actually auditioned a lot of people and I did about six callbacks with actors that I wanted. The problem was, I was spending so much time trying to work with them to get this character right. I wanted to move away from how we are traditionally typecast in movies in New Zealand, which is like the Jake character in Once Were Warriors, who’s basically an alcoholic killer. There’s that kind of character, or there’s this sort of stoic warrior Dances with Wolves type of guy. There’s more to us than that. We have geeky, dorky guys who are essentially weaklings who pretend to be tough. You can have characters that have slightly more layers to them and that’s what I wanted. I wanted a degree of comedy in there as well.

Alamein (Taika Waititi) lives out one of his fantasies.

For me the most important factor in the film is the kids. The film is nothing without them, so I couldn’t be on set spending all my energy with an adult trying to work through problems. It was just easier for me to play him because I knew exactly what I wanted because the character’s based on a lot of guys that I knew. It just made sense for me to do it. My background’s comedy. I’ve done a lot of acting in the past and I wanted a certain amount of humor within the role, as well as some dramatic stuff. And being able to work with the kids directly in the scene was a huge benefit. I was in the scene directing them to their faces instead of being a voice from across the set. In the end, it made the job easier.

You mentioned your comedy background, which is probably what you’re best known for to many American audiences from your work on Flight of the Conchords. But you also have a background in visual art. How would you say that experience informed you as a director?

That’s what I was doing the longest until I started making films in 2004. My thing was painting and illustration and I still do illustration because it’s something I can do while traveling, since I travel quite a lot.

Composition-wise, the way I try and make things look, the art direction of having certain colors and certain things that I wanted within a frame, it certainly helps. I’ve also done a lot of photography, so that also plays into it. Really, film became the perfect medium for me because it was a mixture of all the things I was doing anyway. It allows me to address them all and be satisfied all in one project.

Boy was very successful in New Zealand. Now that it’s been opening in different cities around the U.S., what have the reactions been like here?

Fantastic. The reviews have been insanely great and the audiences have been fantastic. Because we’re doing self distribution, we’re doing roll-outs of ten new cities a week. In the next month, we’re opening in, like, another 40 cities. It’s really cool that the audiences get to see it, but it takes longer since we don’t have the budget of something like John Carter driving it. So we’re putting more effort into it with Q&As and stuff like that, and having physical presence with the film.

Speaking of big budget films, you were also in Green Lantern. What was that experience like in comparison with working on your own film?

Yeah. I played the best friend of the Green Lantern, who is this computer geek with glasses and stuff. It was weird. It wasn’t as much fun. Boy was filmed in a cool environment because I was in my hometown and it felt like a family affair. With Green Lantern it was like going to a new city. The set had hundreds and hundreds of people where our crew was, like, 40. There’s a certain disconnect within that kind of filmmaking. Not many people know each other. It was obviously fun to do the acting part of it, but at the end of the day I think anyone could have done that role. I’d rather do something a little more fun and a little more meaningful to me.

Boy. Written and directed by Taika Waititi. Starring James Rolleston, Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu and Taika Waititi. Not rated. www.boythefilm.com.