By Last Caress.

Keeping Justice, the new movie written, directed, produced and edited by RJ Cusyk (Through the Devil’s Eyes, A Final Hit) does not begin especially encouragingly. After witnessing a woman being mugged and murdered immediately outside the window of the Commercial Equity building in which he’s employed, Michael Pierson (Hayden Mackey) takes to his desk and enters into a conversation with Kevin (Michael Lakota Dillon), a work colleague who bowls into Michael’s office, sits down and puts his feet up on the desk. The dialogue plays out as follows:

-“Hey Mike! How ya doin’?”
-“I’m fine. How are you?”
-“Good, man. Just got done banging the secretary, that’s all.”
-“What do you mean, ‘just’? As in, right now?”
-“Yyyyup. And you know what? If she gives the boss half as much head as she does to me, she’ll be moving up the ladder. Dude, she has the tightest box I’ve ever f*cked, and I’ve seen a lot of tight boxes. I even f*cked a virgin.”
-“Kevin, would you kindly shut the f*ck up?”
-“Jeez, what the hell’s your problem?”
-“Nothing. I just don’t want to hear about how you just f*cked the new secretary.”
-“Dude, admit it: You’re just mad because you didn’t f*ck her first.”
-“No, that has nothing to do with it.”
-“Dude, you’re just jealous you didn’t… you didn’t tap that first. That’s it.”
-(sarcastically) “Yep. You got me. I’m super-jealous that I wasn’t able to f*ck her first, and make her my sex-slave.”
-“Dude, I know you well.”
-“You read me like a book! Like that time you read The Dark Tower series. How’s that Gunslinger workin’ out for ya? Or The Man in Black? Was it Johnny Cash like you thought all along?”
-“F*ck you.”

Now this was a static-camera exchange and I couldn’t tell if the actors were playing the dialogue for laughs or were trying to replicate everyday office conversation but, either way, I almost switched it off there and then, and we’re barely two minutes into the picture. Didn’t Michael just witness a robbery and homicide mere yards away outside his window moments prior to this inane back-and-forth with the odious Kevin? Well yes he did (“Ah, that’s a shame,” remarks another co-worker as she joins Michael looking back out of the window at the dead woman on the lawn), and he finally calls it in, but upon being questioned by the police (“What can you tell us about what happened?” “There’s not much to tell.” “Then why did you call us?”) it transpires that, had Michael not been sidetracked by Kevin’s carnal office f*ckwittery and called in the mugging immediately, the victim might have lived. Still, at least Michael called it in, yeah? That’s better than, as he put it to the officers, “the countless people who walked over her body just to go about their day-to-day lives.” Okay then.

This apathy toward the increasingly violent and crime-ridden world in which we live is at the heart of Michael’s trajectory and represents the main thrust of Keeping Justice, as his dreams of becoming more than an inured bystander bleed out into the world and manifest as actual vigilantism. Unfortunately for us, the script doesn’t improve even as the fundamental plot basics do. I hate being negatively critical about independent filmmakers but I cannot in all good conscience recommend Keeping Justice, but I’ll try to pick out some positives anyway: First off, anybody involving themselves as utterly in the process of making a movie as Keeping Justice‘s auteur RJ Cusyk deserves all the respect in the world for his industry, and I want to encourage him to keep plugging away at it. Secondly, lead Hayden Mackey has an inherent likeability and his performance grows as Keeping Justice progresses. Thirdly, some of Michael’s vigilante daydreams are presented in clay stop-motion animation, which is actually quite amusing. And finally, well, the shaky-as-hell character motivations and matching dialogue are often so hilariously bad (sorry, guys!) that in truth I possibly could recommend Keeping Justice as a good “bad” movie, should any of you out there be so inclined towards availing yourselves of such pictures.

Waihau Bay, New Zealand, 1984. “Boy” (James Rolleston) lives on a farm with his gran, his little brother, younger cousins and a goat. When his gran leaves for a week, Boy’s estranged father, Alamein (Taika Waititi) turns up, and Boy struggles to reconcile the legendary figure he created in his dad’s absence, and the incompetent waster who’s turned up out of the blue. What transpires is a summer of girls, gangs, drugs, weirdos, magic powers, Michael Jackson and buried treasure.

Not as quirkily comedic as Eagle Vs Shark, nor as broadly humorous as What We Do in the Shadows, Boy is filled with an innocence and sincerity that places it closer, thematically to Hunt for the Wilderpeople. There’s heart and imagination within Boy that is incredibly warming. Taika Waititi does exceptionally well at recounting the wide-eyed wonder of youth, the hard-fought friendships and the gutting reality of your heroes not measuring up to expectations. Setting the film in an area where he grew up adds a verisimilitude to the characters and the world they inhabit.

James Rolleston is disarmingly endearing as a performer. Watching him interact with Waititi evokes memories of young Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry in Beasts of the Southern Wild (only with a lot less crying on my part). The pair have a natural chemistry which permeates the screen. Boy falls over himself to ingratiate to his father, who is immature, feckless and selfish, and despite the off-putting traits we see in Alamein, you still want to see both father and son succeed.

An element that Waititi handles perfectly is the balance of pluck and melancholia. Loss and disappointment intermingle on screen with a child’s boasts as he tells whopping-great tall tales of his father’s exploits. It’s silly and tragic all at once, which runs through the core of the film. Humour and poignancy in equal measure.

Boy is an utter delight of a feature. A compelling story with charming characters that will warrant a revisit before too long. It’s a sincere hope that Waititi returns to modest cinematic fayre once he’s finished cavorting with Norse gods and Incredibly big green men.

Boy is out in UK cinemas on 13^th October and available on digital download on 27^th October.

By Angelique Halliburton.

Besties Jim and Alex can’t believe their luck when they meet beautiful siblings Lulu and Kitty who appear to be up for absolutely anything. Result. Little do they know that the sinister sisters are on the murder hunt for sacrificial lambs as part of a hell-raising ritual and will stop at nothing to get what they want. Throw in some ecstasy, the narcotic variety, and what you get is a horror/comedy movie that just keeps on giving.

Poor old Jim (Danny Morgan). At 29, he’s not a hit with the ladies by any stretch of the imagination and he’s just been dumped by his girlfriend on the eve of his 30th birthday.  To add to his despair, Jim confesses to his lovable but mental best mate, Alex (Michael Socha), that he looses his mojo during crucial intimate moments and is in fact a still a virgin. So, Alex decrees that Jim with pop his cherry before he turns 30 if it kills him. And that’s what very nearly happens to them both when Lulu (Georgia Groome) and Kitty (Kelly Wenham) just happen to cross their paths in a bar.

Lulu and Kitty’s killer streak is spelled out from the outset so there are no real surprises as to their motive for targeting Jim and Alex, but what is shocking are the violent and gory scenes throughout the movie.  In fact, those sequences are Double Date’s most redeeming features. That and several other memorable laugh-out-loud scenes like Jim’s impromptu non-starter date with a bereaved bag-vomiting drunk, his visit with his happy clappy Christian family and a kick-ass fight between at Alex and Kitty that gets low down and dirty.

Ok, so some bits look fake and totally unbelievable but it’s all bloody good fun. Double Date is apologetically British, with a solid cast and a musical cameo by Big Narstie thrown in for added authenticity. An impressive writing debut by Danny Morgan, who recently won the the Screen International/FrightFest Genre Rising Star 2017 award.

Double Date is due for UK cinema release on Friday 13 October.