Eagle vs Shark
| Eagle vs Shark | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Taika Waititi |
| Produced by | Cliff Curtis |
| Written by | Taika Waititi |
| Starring | Jemaine Clement Loren Horsley Craig Hall Joel Tobeck |
| Music by | The Phoenix Foundation |
| Cinematography | Adam Clark |
| Editing by | Jonathan Woodford-Robinson |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | June 15, 2007 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,298,037 (worldwide) |
Eagle vs Shark is a 2007 New Zealand romantic comedy[citation needed] film directed by Taika Waititi and financed by the New Zealand Film Commission. The screenplay was also written by Waititi, based on the character of Lily created by Loren Horsley.[1]
The film had its world premiere at Sundance in the World Cinema Dramatic section of the festival and opened in the United States on June 15, 2007.
The soundtrack to Eagle vs Shark features New Zealand artists The Phoenix Foundation, Age Pryor, The Reduction Agents, and Tessa Rain, along with M. Ward, Devendra Banhart and British group The Stone Roses. Along with a number of songs The Phoenix Foundation wrote the original score for the film. The soundtrack is available through Hollywood Records and Apple's iTunes.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
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Lily (Loren Horsley), a shy, wistful girl, is a songwriter when no one is listening. She works as a cashier at a fast food restaurant and has a crush from afar on Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), a geek who works in a video game store. Jarrod is more interested in Lily's attractive workmate, Jenny. With Jenny not at work one day, Jarrod gives Lily an invitation to his "dress as your favourite animal" party to pass along to her, but Jenny crumples it up and throws it away upon receiving it. Lily retrieves the invitation from the trash, hoping Jarrod won't mind when she shows up.
The party is sparsely attended with what are apparently teenage and adult customers of Jarrod's store, all dressed extravagantly as their favourite animal. Jarrod is impressed with Lily's shark costume as well as her savant-like video game skills, making it to the finals of a Fight Man video game competition, though she is no match for defending champion, Jarrod (mainly because she spends most of their contest staring at him). Jarrod questions Lily and learns that her parents are dead, having had heart attacks. He says that both his brother (Gordon) and his mother are dead. (He says his mother died by getting kicked in the head by a cow.) After the conversation, they kiss and have very brief sex.
Lily now considers Jarrod her boyfriend and hangs out around his store. They set a date one night to see a film at the local cinema. Jarrod fails to turn up. He comes by Lily's house later that night to apologize, saying he was depressed and needed to be alone. He later says that he has to kill a man in his hometown who used to bully him in high school, but laments that he has no car to get there. Lily asks her brother Damon, and he consents to drive Jarrod and Lily to Jarrod's home.
On the way to Jarrod's home town, Damon offers Lily and Jarrod apples to eat. Jarrod takes a bite only to discover that his apple is rotten. He throws it out the window into a river that they are driving past. This apple then becomes the representation of Jarrod in several claymation scenes of the film. Upon arriving, Damon and Lily discover that the family is just as bizarre as Jarrod himself. Jarrod's sister (Nancy) and brother-in-law (Doug) seem to sell all kinds of "sell from home products", like questionable make-up kits, knives, and their own athletic jumpsuit clothing line "Awesome apparel". Jarrod's dad is a withdrawn man in a wheelchair.
Jarrod spends his time alternating between trying to win his dad's affection (by any means possible) and training for his impending fight with his high school bully Eric Elisi. It becomes quite clear that his father loved his other son Gordon much more than Jarrod. Gordon was very successful, winning many ribbons, especially in running. When Lily asks how Gordon died, Jarrod says that he died saving a kid from a fire at the school. Lily meets with Mason - Jarrod's best friend and computer geek - to find out that Eric will return from Samoa the next day. The three then run to Eric's house to drop off Jarrod's invitation to the fight between the two of them.
Gordon's fiance, Tracy, comes over. It is quite obvious that she is a person of similar success to Gordon and that the father even loves her more than Jarrod. Jarrod tries to impress his father with the news that he's dating Lily, but the father isn't impressed. The two go to the beach and Lily finds a rock shaped like a heart that she shows Jarrod. Shortly thereafter, Jarrod breaks up with Lily on the beach because he's too busy with the revenge mission and "too complex" for a relationship. Lily is visibly upset but tries to hide it. Jarrod, attempting to make his father happy by going out with Tracy, takes flowers over to Tracy's house and spends the day with her on the beach trying to impress her with all the fighting "skills" that he has. She isn't impressed.
Meanwhile, it's been revealed that Jarrod has a little girl who is nine that he sees only occasionally from a previous random sexual encounter at a party. Lily and the girl walk with Jonah around town coming to a hill. He refuses to go any farther, holding the wheels of his wheelchair and finally getting up out of his wheelchair and walking himself and his wheelchair home (proving that there is no real reason that he needs it). Lily and the girl continue up the hill where the girl says that "That's where my Uncle Gordon died", bringing up that Gordon did not die saving a kid from a fire as Jarrod had said, but rather by committing suicide.
They return home and the family eats dinner. Lily tells a silly joke and the whole group gets along very well. Jarrod comes home to find the group laughing and then kills the mood by saying that he'd been with Tracy all day and that they'd been laughing like that, "but like ten times more laughter". Jarrod's father Jonah spends most of his time watching an old tape of Gordon winning a cross country meet and reliving the victory that he felt at that time. In the video, Gordon wins the race and is congratulated obsessively by his father. Tracy comes over and the two are celebrating. Jarrod then attempts to come over and is pushed away by the father. Seeing his father watching this and feeling even more alienated, Jarrod announces that he is dating Tracy. Johan is crushed. Lily, annoyed by this, leaves the house and takes her sleeping bag from the tent, choosing to sleep over on the other side of the yard instead. Jarrod is annoyed by this and moves the whole tent over to her and sleeps inside it (though it collapses on top of him). The next morning, Lily wakes up to find Jarrod semi-sleeping on her, though he insists that it's her doing that he ended up that way.
Finally, annoyed by Jarrod's behavior, Lily decides to go with Doug and Nancy to a local party. She gets very drunk and dances with a lot of boys while Jarrod watches, looking extremely jealous, from the other side of the party. The whole party loves Lily. Eventually, she runs off, ripping off all her clothes to sleep naked in the bushes somewhere that night. Jarrod waits up for her. In the morning, he tells Lily he didn't get any sleep that night waiting for her, implying he still has feelings for her. Then he has his battle.
Jarrod confronts Eric with his family and friends watching, and finds out that Eric is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair. Eric apologizes for how he bullied him in high school, and Jarrod attacks him with his nunchuks. Despite his condition, Eric is able to easily wrestle Jarrod to the ground and only relents in his attacks when Jarrod's father tells him to leave him alone.
Jarrod is depressed about his fight with Eric, however Lily finds him and attempts to cheer him up. Lily leaves saying that she is leaving for home on the following day - but that could change. However at the bus stop Jarrod meets her and presents her with a bouquet of lillies. They reconcile, and head back to where they met on a bus together.
[edit] Cast
- Jemaine Clement as Jarrod
- Loren Horsley as Lily
- Craig Hall as Doug Davis
- Joel Tobeck as Damon
- Brian Sergent as Jonah
- Rachel House as Nancy
- Dave Fane as Eric
- Taika Waititi as Gordon
[edit] Production
The film's script was workshopped at the Sundance Film Festival Director's and Screenwriter's Labs in June 2005.[2] The script was sold in August and given a budget of NZ$1.8 million (US$1.35 million). It was shot entirely in New Zealand, in and around Wellington and Porirua, during 25 days in October and November 2005 with a crew of 35 workers.[1][3]
The film is composed mostly of live action, but segments within the film are done in stop motion by Another Planet Ltd., utilizing both props and actors.[1]
[edit] Distribution
At Cannes 2006 it was announced that Miramax Films had purchased the North American theatrical rights after watching a five-minute trailer.[4]
The creators of the film asked art website DeviantArt to hold a competition to come up with a poster for the film.[5] The winning poster, by DeviantArt user 'puggdogg', was printed in The Onion newspaper.[6]
[edit] Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews, receiving a rating of 55/100 on Metacritic[7] and a 44% Top Critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[8] The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes was that while there were "frequent moments of wit and mordant humor, Eagle vs Shark needs more to distinguish itself from other precious, Napoleon Dynamite-ish comedies' moments."[8] Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal commented that "...'Eagle vs Shark' has its own distinctive style, partly thanks to whimsical little interludes of animation, but mainly because it ties blithe absurdity to a rock bed of emotional truth."[9] Jim Ridley of The Village Voice noted the dissimilarity to Napoleon Dynamite saying "Napoleon Dynamite looks like Cary Grant next to the hero of this Kiwi quirk-a-thon: a hulking, sullen creep named Jarrod whose goony sulking, petulant selfishness and dweeby videogame obsession somehow work like Spanish fly on mousy burger-flipper Lily."[10]
[edit] Box office
Eagle vs Shark opened on June 15, 2007 on three screens (one in New York City, two in Los Angeles) grossing $20,361 in its opening weekend.[11] This was preceded by a series of free screenings, some with a Q&A with Taika Waititi and Loren Horsley, in certain cities to gain a word of mouth buzz.[3] The film eventually expanded to 20 screens and grossed $221,846 in North America. It grossed $1,076,191 in other territories, totaling $1,298,037 worldwide.[11]
[edit] Home media
Eagle vs Shark was released January 8, 2008 on DVD. Bonus features include a commentary by director Taika Waititi, outtakes, deleted scenes with optional commentary, and The Phoenix Foundation music video "Going Fishing".
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Eagle vs Shark Production Notes" (Press release). New Zealand Film Commission. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5qtpZcjGM. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ Roberts, Sheila (2007). "Eagle vs Shark Loren Horsley, Taika Waititi Interview". MoviesOnline. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5qtqS9dM4. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ a b Goldsmith, Jeff (June 16, 2007). "Eagle vs Shark Q&A". Creative Screenwriting Magazine. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5qtq0nNM7. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ Ross, Matthew (January 17, 2007). "Taika Waititi". Variety. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5qtrIkehV. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ lolly (June 4, 2007). "Eagle vs Shark Poster Contest". DeviantArt. http://news.deviantart.com/article/29882/. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ lolly (June 30, 2007). "Eagle Vs Shark Poster Contest Winners!". DeviantArt. http://news.deviantart.com/article/30735/. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ "Eagle vs. Shark reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/eaglevsshark. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ a b "Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eagle_vs_shark/#top-critics-numbers. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
- ^ Morgenstern, Joe (June 15, 2007). "Kiwi Comedy 'Eagle vs Shark' Is Endearing, Odd". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5qtr1Ljp9. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ Ridley, Jim (June 5, 2007). "Eagle vs. Shark". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5qtrBK20Q. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
- ^ a b "Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=eaglevsshark.htm. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
