The comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople which played at Tribeca on Thursday has made me want to go back and explore the filmography of director Taika Waititi. Because if “Hunt” is any indication, Waititi is likely destined to become New Zealand’s answer to America’s Wes Anderson and England’s Edgar Wright—a highly-idiosyncratic and stylized comedic filmmaker. But whereas the bulk of Anderson and Wright’s comedy comes from their mise en scène and use of frame composition Waititi’s film comes from its editing or lack thereof—jarring smash cuts between incongruous subjects and awkward long shots without cuts that allows the characters to move about the frame in stilted silence. I expected to get tired of these techniques rather quickly, but they somehow never lost their charm.
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Published on ScreenComment.com