‘Head South’: Rotterdam Review

Dir/scr: Jonathan Ogilvie. New Zealand. 2024. 98mins

In 1979, Angus (Ed Oxenbould), a wide-eyed teenage schoolboy in Christchurch, New Zealand, is drawn to the underground post-punk music scene and the too-cool-for-school crop-haired youngsters that inhabit it. Escaping from household angst and upheaval, he invents his personal fictitious band – however his lies tackle a lifetime of their very own. The fourth characteristic from Jonathan Ogilvie is a vivid, affectionate however erratically structured semi-autobiographical snapshot of a short however essential second in New Zealand’s cultural historical past.

Vivid, affectionate however erratically structured 

Ogilvie returns to open Rotterdam with Head South, having premiered his final movie, the near-future discovered footage political thriller Lone Wolf, within the competition’s Large Display Competitors in 2021. This image is the newest addition to the coming-of-age/rock band subgenre, which comprises films reminiscent of John Carney’s Sing Avenue and Giles Borg’s 1234, amongst others. It’s a likeable movie, which makes enthusiastic use of the scrappy, hand-made fanzine aesthetic of the period, and of a selection collection of the music: tracks by Journal, The Slits and Public Picture Restricted characteristic on the soundtrack. Additional competition screenings are a chance, and the movie should not have any downside connecting with home audiences. However it’s additionally a well-recognized story and maybe not distinctive sufficient to journey far past the Antipodean area.

The galvanising consider any music-driven coming-of-age story tends to be an unobtainable and achingly cool woman. On this case, there are two. The primary we meet is Holly (Roxie Mohebbi), a peroxided Debbie Harry look-alike who stalks into Angus’ world to scream abuse at an aged man who has simply unwittingly knocked Angus and his school-friend Jamie (Trendall Pulini) off their bikes. Somewhat underdeveloped as a personality, Holly’s fundamental responsibility within the movie is to supply what at first appears to be an unmatchable benchmark of easy cool. Alongside together with her equally intimidating boyfriend, she claims to be from London – however the fact is fairly extra prosaic.

Extra partaking as a personality is Kirsten (Stella Bennett, aka Benee, an Auckland-based musician who grew to become an web sensation throughout lockdown). Kristen works in a pharmacy, however in her spare time performs guitar and writes songs. Of all of the posturing youngsters of their drainpipe denims, she is the one one with actual expertise. When Angus realises that his lie about fronting a band has gathered momentum, he approaches Kristen, and a tentative, sweetly persuasive friendship grows between them in her laundry room/rehearsal area.

In the meantime, Angus’s father (Marton Csokas), briefly the only real mother or father whereas Angus’s mom strikes out for a two week trial separation, glowers within the gloomy front room and makes an attempt to mitigate his midlife disaster by shopping for a hover-mower. And Angus’ eccentric aged aunt frequently telephones with premonitions of doom gathered from the useless relations that she claims hang-out her attic.

Using the prophetic aunt to counsel darkish occasions forward is only one occasion by which the movie feels a bit of on the nostril in its strategy. Elsewhere, when Angus first listens to Public Picture Restricted, his horizons are broadened – actually: Ogilvie stretches the facet ratio from a decent, repressed little field to an expansive widescreen. Elsewhere, music decisions might be fairly literal, with lyrics that doggedly mirror the motion enjoying out on display screen. However the movie’s fundamental situation is the positioning of an surprising tragedy. Coming on the very finish of the movie, it’s a tonal swerve unbalances the story and appears to require a payoff that by no means arrives.