One World Cinema

Hunt for the Wilderpeople” is a lovable and funny adventure comedy.  Ricky Baker goes from being an unwanted  child passed around from foster home to foster home, to an outlaw on the run hiding in the New Zealand back country with his guardian.  The first scene opens up with a young Maori boy dressed in hip hop clothes and a bad attitude. His case worker drops him off by a police escort to his new foster home in the New Zealand countryside. Ricky takes a walk around the grounds of his new home, and goes right back to the police car.  His new, friendly Aunt Bella warms up to him, and he eventually comes around. She is so kind and loving to him that he really takes a liking to her. Bella’s husband, Hec, however, does not take a liking to Ricky at all. Not too long into the film, Bella suddenly dies of what appears to be a heart attack, and the case worker wants to come and collect Ricky to take him on to a new home because there is no female role in the home any longer. Defiant Ricky doesn’t want to leave, and instead, he and Hec decide to live like “The Revenant” in the hillside.  The two are notorious throughout the country, their photos plastered everywhere, it gets harder and harder for them to hide from the authorities, meanwhile their uncle/adopted son relationship grows stronger.

4/22: 6pm BTC7