Lily is a cashier at the Meaty Boy burger bar and longs for midday when local videogame nerd Jarrod comes in for his regular lunchtime meal. When Lily plucks up the courage to talk to Jarrod by offering him some free extra large fries, she manages to gatecrash Jarrod's ‘dress as your favourite animal’ fancy dress party dressed as a shark. After impressing Jarrod with her gaming skills by making it to the final of the in-party Fight Man video game competition she accompanies Jarrod to his home town where he plans to settle a score with an old school bully. It’s obvious that writer and director Taika Waititi has been heavily influenced by Napoleon Dynamite, the characters and dialogue both have the same feel as Napoleon Dynamite but it never quite manages to pull it off in the same seemingly effortless way as Napoleon Dynamite does. Loren Horsley as the shy sensitive Lily is pretty much adorable throughout, but Jermaine Clement’s character of Jarrod erratically swings from comical to obnoxious all through the film which as a viewer makes it tough for you to warm to him. While there are moments of brilliance throughout the film, the part quirky comedy, part rom-com and part coming of age story feels like a film which doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. If you liked ‘Flight of the Conchords’, ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ and Miranda July’s ‘Me And You And Everyone We Know’ then this is well worth a look.
If you enjoyed the adventures of Napoleon Dynamite, you will love this too- it’s a similarly affectionate portrayal of socially awkward loners and losers with grandiose ideas. It takes itself much less seriously than the other quirk-fest I’ve seen recently, “Me and You and Everyone We Know”, and its heroine Lily, played by Loren Horsley, is certainly an antidote to the tough, confident women who seem to crop up in your standard Hollywood fare. Mousy- looking and retiring by nature, she nevertheless worms her way into her idiot boyfriend Jarrod’s life, charms his family and by her quiet persistence gives him a chance to repair some of the damage he’s done to his own life. But the question is, being a complete tool, will he take it?
Waititi has an amateur childish charm which will not appeal to many. Silly and slow comedy. A bunch of nerds with no social skills will eventually charm you with their innocent naive stupidity. Not great but uplifting.