200 the Contemporary Pacific • 21:1 (2009) Laurel a Monnig *
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200 the contemporary pacifi c • 21:1 (2009) tory, which began almost immediately dressed as an eagle, is impressed by after the United States gained its early Lily’s shark costume and even more twentieth century territories. Spar- impressed by her video-game skills. row does a wonderful job of distill- They soon end up in Jarrod’s bedroom ing many complicated factors into a where he shows off his most promis- coherent argument that elucidates the ing art projects, which seem hope- current state of affairs for the United lessly unpromising. After awkwardly States (the Iraq war, the war on terror, consummating their new relationship, US economic troubles, and so on). the viewers quickly discover Jarrod Contemporary US policies evolved has a hidden dark side. He is obsessed from a historical / political /economic / with returning to his childhood home military arc in which the United States to “kick the ass” of his high school positioned itself to grasp and maintain nemesis Eric, a Samoan bully, who, global infl uence. according to Jarrod, is responsible for laurel a monnig ruining his life. “I used to be a bit of a University of Illinois, nerd,” Jarrod confesses. Urbana-Champagne Lily is seduced by Jarrod’s need to win, and in classic codependent form *** she quickly enlists her brother to give them a ride out to Jarrod’s small, Eagle vs Shark. dvd/35mm, 88 min- country town. Here, Lily discovers utes, color, 2007. Written and directed the true nature of Jarrod’s problem by Taika Waititi. Produced by Ainsley lies more in his relationship with his Gardiner and Cliff Curtis. Executive dysfunctional family than with any Producer: Emanuel Michael. Created Samoan tough guy. Jarrod is consumed by Miramax Films and Whenua with gaining love from his oblivious Films Ltd in association with the father, who lives in a constant state of New Zealand Film Commission and mourning over the mysterious death of Unison Films. Languages: English and Jarrod’s heroic brother. Lily learns that Spanish; subtitles: English, French, Jarrod wants to reclaim his brother’s Spanish. Distributed by Miramax lost throne, and restore his dad’s hap- Films. us$19.99. piness by taking on his high school nemesis and becoming the new family Eagle vs Shark is a fi lm in which dorky hero. The problem is that no matter posers obsessively try to win games how hard Jarrod practices his karate they all seem destined to loose. In the moves for the big fi ght, his inner geek backwards metropolis of urban New betrays him. But, following a humiliat- Zealand, Jarrod works as a video- ing defeat, Lily is the one person who game salesman at Screenblasterz, while still accepts him. Unlike Jarrod, Lily is nearby his secret admirer, Lily, serves not obsessed with denying her nerdi- up burgers at Meaty Boy. When Lily is ness. In accepting herself she is able fi red from her cherished fast-food job to accept Jarrod, and in the end, helps for being unpopular, she throws cau- Jarrod do the same. tion to the wind and crashes Jarrod’s Developed at the Sundance Direc- exclusive “animal party.” Jarrod, tors and Screenwriters Lab, Eagle book and media reviews 201 vs Shark is the debut feature fi lm by decidedly unhip characters, the image writer-director Taika Waititi. Before is comically subverted. Production making this fi lm, Waititi was best designer Joe Bleakley further captures known for his Oscar nominated short, this environmental paradox with Two Cars, One Night, and his work such inventive settings as Lily’s lonely with Jemaine Clement in the comedy home decorated with cheery fl owered duo “Humorbeasts.” Clement (who wallpaper, and the Cine-Saures Rex’s plays Jarrod in Eagle vs Shark) is a giant toothy-mouthed movie theater comic genius and very much grounds entrance. This is an artifi cial world the fi lm with his unique passive- that represses its natural soul. aggressive presence. Loren Horsley, As the fi lm moves from the city to who plays Lily, does a fantastic job at the country, the physical landscape playing the “straight man” to Clem- becomes more prominent and parallels ent, and effectively navigates her char- the emotional journey of our protago- acter through this sweet story without nists as they begin to confront their falling into the trap of sentimentality. true identities. In the beginning, Jarrod Although this story fi ts into a genre and Lily are oppressed by their envi- with Napoleon Dynamite, Rushmore, ronment as they obsessively try to act and a host of other ironic comedies, “cool.” The city is fi lled with stuffy Eagle vs Shark is a unique fi lm because interiors; the sky is literally never of the culturally specifi c nature of its shown. As they shift to the country, world. Waititi sets the story in his the natural environment subtly grows native New Zealand, and although and becomes more dominant as the he packs the fi lm with eccentric local characters begin to accept themselves. characters, he deliberately shies away Cinematographer Adam Clark master- from drawing specifi c attention to fully counterpoints the claustrophobic issues of Mäori culture. In fact, neither nature of the city with vast green New Zealand nor any town within hilltops, majestic bays, and rocky it is ever mentioned by name in the shorelines. entire movie. Rather, the fi lm uses the What is most impressive about modern mixed-race culture of New Eagle vs Shark is that even with all Zealand as a universal example of our the metaphors and analogies, this fi lm world culture, where average “losers” never falls into the trap of taking itself obsess over turning themselves into too seriously. If anything, the fi lm “winners.” makes fun of itself in its use of sym- Eagle vs Shark metaphorically com- bolic imagery. For example, both Lily ments on this human dilemma in its and Jarrod come from troubled pasts depiction of the New Zealand land- that have clearly left scars. Waititi scapes. So just as Jarrod continuously comments on the struggle to come to lies and tries to hide his inner self terms with these problems by comi- under a veil of cool, Waititi initially cally weaving them into the fabric of conceals the natural New Zealand the story. This is seen most explicitly environment, portraying it as a place in the identical moles awkwardly trying to be a hip, modern metropo- placed above Jarrod and Lily’s upper lis. Yet because the city is fi lled with lips, which they both choose to ignore 202 the contemporary pacifi c • 21:1 (2009) until the end of the fi lm. Yes, these apples fi nally fi nd peace with each birthmarks are symbols of the scars other on a deserted island. that bind them together, but the moles’ This fi lm could be dismissed as a very presence also makes fun of the simple lighthearted comedy, but it characters’ mutual absurd decision to actually resonates on a much deeper ignore them. and universal level. In Eagle vs Shark, Because Jarrod and Lily are con- adults struggle with learning to release tinuously unsuccessful in their earnest the past and grow beyond their teen- attempts to cover up their obvious age preoccupations with winning the vulnerabilities, ironic humor is often big race. In the end, more than a love the result. Jarrod wants to be the story, this is a story of self-acceptance. superhero warrior he plays in his The human condition dictates that we video-games. He wants to be the are all rotten apples—we are all dam- karate expert hero. Yet his quest is aged goods. Our challenge is to focus hopeless and absurd, because he’s a on what is good and leave the dam- twenty- fi ve-year-old nerd and his eagle aged part behind. costume for the animal party only joel moffett confi rms this. University of Hawai‘i, Mänoa Indeed, the age of our protagonists informs one of the most prominent *** motifs in this fi lm: adults acting like children. Jarrod’s big fi ght with Eric Resistance: An Indigenous Response literally takes place on the school to Neoliberalism, edited by Maria playground and his sacred art projects Bargh. Wellington, nz: Huia Publish- look like they were made in grade ers, 2007. isbn 978-1-86969-286-5; school. The Phoenix Foundation’s 213 pages, illustrations, appendix, sweet melancholy acoustic music glossary, bibliography, index. Paper, further nourishes this childlike world us$28.00. Distributed by University of where adolescent obsessions drive the Hawai‘i Press. action forward with crank phone calls and backyard campouts. In this recent work (published by This innocent world is also organi- Huia, a Mäori press), editor Maria cally refl ected in the stop-motion Bargh, a lecturer of Mäori studies animation sequences that structurally at Victoria University at Wellington, ground the fi lm from beginning to elucidates the ways that neoliberal end. Masterfully designed by Francis policies espoused by the New Zea- Salole and Guy Capper, the animation land government since 1984 adversely parallels the journey of our protago- affect Mäori well-being and Mäori nists with a fable-like love story of pursuit of tino rangatiratanga, Mäori damaged goods, or in this case, fruit. self-determination and sovereignty. A rotten apple (discarded by Jarrod) Neoliberalism, the prevailing conven- and an apple core (discarded by Lily) tion that has been successively adopted come to life in a series of vignettes by most governing bodies around the that vaguely match the structure of the world since the 1980s, maintains that live-action story.