Eagle vs Shark: No Matter Who Wins... We Lose.

A lot of people gave this film crap for feeling like Napoleon Dynamite, but this cannot be true. What's really present here that no one seems to notice is absent in the Great Dynamite, is the presence of real people. I mean, certainly it's a little cardboard cutout-ey, but I feel like I know the main character, Lily. She is quirky, she is off-beat, but the actor wasn't trying so hard to make us laugh that she left behind the additional dimensions of her character. When Napoleon or that girl from that movie hurt, we laugh. Perhaps their hurt evokes a small "ohhh...", but it's a cute moment. When Lily (the titular Shark) is hurt, it hurts us. It's hard to watch not because it's awkward, but because we don't like that she's in pain. In fact, the spell of awkwardity... awkwardness... whatever... that spell is broken because she is suddenly real.

And reality is present, too, in the setting. The suburban streets and backyards and parks are small amid the beautiful New Zealand. The sunny, bird-chirp-ey mornings against weathered, slatted fences felt like childhood. The laziness in everyones movements and schedules, while probably not indicative of the entire culture, had a time and place to it that Nappy Dyne intentionally eschewed.

I've been prepped for the New Zealand deadpan by the insanely good Flight of the Conchords (the very hilarious Jemain Clement's role in this film was what inspired me to netflix it), and so the subtler displays of emotion were fine.