Looking back at Taika Waititi's movies
Taika Waititi is a writer, director, and actor from New Zealand. He is most well known for finally getting Thor right with Thor Ragnarok, his Oscar winning film, Jojo Rabbit, and his cult classic mockumentary film, What We Do in the Shadows.
While Taika Waititi has limited visual flair and can be a little generic at times, his quick editing, central framing, quirky production design and story beats involving childish adults with a kid’s POV, does remind me a bit of early Edgar Wright and Wes Anderson which I love.
It often feels like Taika is a much better at writing than he is at directing. Having said that, he is excellent at getting great performances out of actors. Taika is able to do one of the hardest things in directing, which is getting good performances out of child actors. Being a decent actor himself, Taika is able to relate with his actors and collaborate better with them.
His films often feature child actors as the lead roles and deal with the struggles of being “The Outsider Kid”. He is particularly good at using humor in the first half of the film to welcome us into the world of the protagonist, and then seamlessly switching from comedy to drama in the second act, and finally striking a strong, memorable and, emotional blow as the story wraps up.
Taika Waititi is a naturally funny person, so one of the biggest strengths of his movies, is the quirky, unique, and childlike sense of humor. But, I did feel that when he was working with a partner like Jermaine Clement or Loren Taylor, he was at his funniest. When he’s working with someone else, he’s able to focus more, resulting in a more consistently funny movie.
While not the most cinematic films, Taika Waititi films are a brilliant showcase of how to combine quirky comedy with heart-wrenching emotional moments, led by kids just trying to fit in. He is one of the best writers working today when it comes to writing about childhood and all the good, bad and somewhere-in-between moments of childhood.
Good things about Looking back at Taika Waititi's
- Editing
- Production Design
- Directing Actors
- Story Transitions
- Script
Bad things about Looking back at Taika Waititi's
- Cinematography
- Generic
- Sense of Humour
Rating: 3.5 / 5