You know it is a good week for the local film industry when not one, but two, New Zealand films roll into cinemas across the country.
Action comedy The Legend of Baron To'a is one, while blood-splattered comedy thriller Come to Daddy, starring a rather familiar-looking hobbit, is the other.
It's hard to decide what is more creepy about Elijah Wood's new film Come to Daddy, the premise or his haircut. This much is clear from the get-go: You are not in Middle Earth anymore Dr Frodo.
Wood's choice of roles since his Lord of the Rings days has been eclectic and refreshing. Here he is Norval, yes Norval, in his latest darkly-comic, father-daddy fable, and he is just sublime. The perfect almond milk and kale protein shake of sweet and revolting. He is the kind of vapid, privileged man-baby who should be mined for comedy far more on the big screen.
Norval is summoned by his father to his spooky house on a spooky hill, a man he hasn't seen since he was a child. He doesn't know why, neither do we.
Enough said.
The film is the work of a first time Kiwi director, but by no means is this Ant Timpson's first time on a film set. Timpson is a lifetime slave to his love for film. The stranger the film the better.
He has spent a good portion of his adult life watching films, collecting films, advocating for other people's films and producing his own films. A champion of local cinema and genre cinema in general, he gave voice to an unknown filmmaker by the name of Taika Waititi as well as thousands of other Kiwi storytellers with his 48-Hour film competition. Not to mention his Incredibly Strange Film Festival, which is now a solid staple of the New Zealand International Film Festival.
But directing, this is something else, and seeing his name in the opening credits, well that felt pretty good.
"It felt like it was a long time coming. I had a huge wave of emotion when I first saw that come up," Timpson told Newshub.
Casting Wood was also a dream come true. He's not just one of Frodo's biggest fans, they have been mates for years.
"We just wanted to capitalise on the goodwill Elijah has with the audience and then kinda turn that around and make him play a kind of douchey, LA guy. Probably like the most hated person in today's world: a white, rich, millennial twat. "
That goodwill and that likeability now gets its toughest test. After a strong festival run, Come to Daddy now goes out in general release to the world.
