KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * * * *
It must be love. For every time this film pops back into my head - and it has quite a lot because I've gladly seen it twice - I find myself repeating lines from it to long-suffering friends.
As they haven't yet seen the film, they haven't yet laughed at, "Some people in the world don't even have sleeping bags," or "Come on guys, let's make it happen."
But when they do, it will be like the weeks after The Castle all over again ("Dad, I dug another hole", "That's going straight to the poolroom" and "How's the serenity?").
Director-writer Waititi has cited that Aussie film as a comedy cousin to his feature debut, as well as another from across the ditch, the surreal sisterly tale of Love Serenade which it matches more tonally.
Of course, there's already been plenty of comparisons, mainly American, to geek comedy hit Napoleon Dynamite.
But the resemblance is really only fleeting in EvS's early stages. And a MTV-friendly American high-school triumph of the nerd's tale hardly equates to the bittersweet back-to-front romantic comedy and melancholy offered by Waititi against the backdrop of scenic, windswept Titahi Bay.
And there are touches, whether whimsical stop-motion animated sequences involving apples and jandals or the askew production design, which both suggest the influence of arts'n'crafty French director Michel Gondry. And they are beautifully matched by a soundtrack dominated by the Phoenix Foundation, whose best music was cinematic even before it got stuck to a movie.
But the best thing about Eagle vs Shark is how its odd-shaped bits manage to fit into a coherent whole without it feeling like an overt effort to be a surreal comedy, many past local examples of which can be found in the bargain bins at the New Zealand Film Commission.
That is down to a couple of things. Yes, its deadpan one-liners are memorable. But is the characters delivering them weren't so neatly realised they wouldn't stick. Some parts, chiefly like the fractured relationship between Clement's Jarrod and his depressed Dad (Brian Sergeant) do feel underdeveloped and a mite contrived.
But playing Jarrod, the Flight of the Conchordian makes for an excruciatingly entertaining study in arrested development as he hooks up with Lily then takes her to meet his family, all suffering various strains of suburban malaise, before attempting to settle a score with an old nemesis.
But fittingly, as her character inspired the screenplay, the movie belongs to Horsley's meek, monotone sad-eyed Lily, who seems something in Jarrod's insecurity-covering bluster and macho fumblings than clearly no one else can.
She's mesmerising, even when she's inducing in you the frequent urge to shake some sense into her. EvS might prove that after his acclaimed shorts Waititi's talents can stretch to a multi-layered feature that is both imaginative while feeling like it was made just around the corner. It gets that fifth star, though, thanks to Horsley and her remarkable performance. The way she delivers that sleeping-bag line is pure poetry.
Cast: Jemaine Clement, Loren Horsley,
Director: Taika Waititi
Rating: M (violence, offensive language)
Running Time: 83 mins
Screening: Hoyts, Skycity, Rialto, Berkeley cinemas
Verdict: Local much anticipated anti-romantic comedy won't suit some but it's still a miniature marvel
