These films were on TVNZ+ at one stage but aren’t anymore. These capsule reviews live here now.
The Boxtrolls
WATCH ON TVNZ+A young orphan boy is raised by a loving family of underground box-wearing trolls in this Oscar-nominated family adventure from Laika Entertainment. While it’s based on the children’s novel Here Be Monsters by Alan Snow, you could easily mistake the film’s gorgeously rendered Victorian world for a classic Roald Dahl setting. With an irresistibly charming sense of familial whānau bonds and a wry message about class inequality, The Boxtrolls remains one of Laika’s less-appreciated films (though you can still appreciate the likes of Coraline, ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings, which are also on TVNZ+).
Groundhog Day
WATCH ON TVNZ+You’ve probably heard this one’s a stone-cold classic, but it’s always worth repeating. Bill Murray plays a huge asshole in the form of a weatherman who, for unknown reasons, keeps repeating the same day over and over again. Murray engulfs the role in this stone-cold classic, his increasing insanity snowballing to the film’s many comedic highs. A stone-cold classic, Groundhog Day went on to inspire the creation of an entire subgenre, numerous references in other films, and one maniac to watch the film every day for a year. A stone-cold classic.
The NeverEnding Story
WATCH ON TVNZ+This beautifully, tragically ’80s family film brings a fantasy novel to life for one bookworm of a kid. Needing a place to escape his bullies, the young boy finds an adventurous otherworldly realm that may or may not have ties to his own.
You wouldn’t necessarily expect to see a filmmaker take charge of a flight-of-fancy kids film just a few years after making a two-and-a-half hour submarine war thriller, but that’s exactly what Das Boot director Wolfgang Petersen did. Boasting some truly incredible practical effects that hold up to this day, The NeverEnding Story presents a window to a completely different universe—one that isn’t afraid to get dark or trippy.
Night of the Kings
WATCH ON TVNZ+A nominee for Best Film at the Toronto and Venice film festivals, this ambitious hybrid of crime-thriller and fantasy centres on a young thief sent to a prison run by prisoners. If he hopes to survive the night, he must keep telling stories. He starts with a tale about a fellow criminal in the slum of Abidjan…
Filmmaker Philippe Lacôte made waves previously with his film Run, which became The Ivory Coast’s second-ever submission to the Academy Awards. Here, he made even greater splashes with a film beloved by critics. “An assured, energetic piece of epic filmmaking,” RogerEbert.com boasted. “Blends elements you’d think could never go together into a swirling, striking whole,” Boston Globe praised.
Stranger than Fiction
WATCH ON TVNZ+A low-key Will Ferrell comedy? Yes, it does exists, and it comes in the form of this very witty and incredibly charming meta-movie. Ferrell stars as an everyday man with an everyday name, Harold, who doesn’t realise he’s a character in a novel—until he hears the author (a perfectly cast Emma Thompson) narrating his every move. It’s a strange but harmless phenomenon until the narrator announces that he’s going to die soon. How does Harold change a predetermined story? That’s a big part of the joy of watching Stranger Than Fiction unravel. The other big part is seeing Ferrell’s range as an actor, presented with a role that suits both his comedic sensibilities and his dramatic range.
Waru
WATCH ON TVNZ+Eight wāhine Māori bring the whaea power to this hard-hitting Aotearoa anthology revolving around the tangi of a boy who died at the hands of his caregiver. The very definition of a trailblazer, this landmark feature gave Māori female filmmakers the platform they’ve long been owed. Since then, we’ve seen these directors flourish with the likes of Whina, Cousins, Rūrangi, Ahikāroa and Not Even while Waru producers Kiel McNaughton and Kerry Warkia continued using the format to platform more underrepresented filmmakers with Vai and Kāinga.
