Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Eagle vs. Shark

Taika Waititi | 2007 | 88 min | New Zealand

A quirky indie rom-com from NZ about a couple whose relationship begins at a party where everyone dresses up in a costume of their favourite animal. Lily, a terribly cute and sweet, but shunned employee of a fast food burger joint is the titular shark, and Jarrod, a textbook moody loser-nerd who works at the local video game store is the titular eagle. After the party's fighting game tournament (think Mortal Kombat), Jarrod takes Lily to his room to show her his artwork. This obviously leads to kissing, then some awkwardly quick eagle/shark sex. The movie that follows is fine and entertaining for an hour and a half, but isn't much more than Napoleon Dynamite, directed by Wes Anderson.

Waititi developed the film at the Sundance Institute, and while I enjoyed the movie, I can't help but wonder what the next project on Sundance's list of potential projects was, and if it wouldn't have been more original and deserving of the help that Eagle vs. Shark received.

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