Housebound (Johnstone, 2015) is streaming on AroVision
Before he hit the international big time with M3GAN last summer, director Gerard Johnstone announced himself with the Kiwi comedy-thriller Housebound, featuring Morgana O’Reilly and the wonderful Rima Te Wiata.
I reviewed it for FishHead magazine at the time:
Johnstone’s control of his material is first-rate, producing comparisons in this reviewer’s mind with Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead fame, probably the highest praise that I can come up with for a film like this one. He keeps the mystery mysterious even as more clues are unveiled, delivers gags that work to propel the story and illuminate character rather than just being yucks for their own sake, and makes sure that there are enough scares that an audience can never really relax.
Housebound is a digital rental from AroVision (or Apple if that suits you better).
Further reading
The school holidays have started – there was a little fella out selling lemons on my walk this morning – and RNZ asked me to contribute five titles to this guide to keeping the kids (and adults) happy for the next two weeks:
Watching movies with your kids isn’t just about shared fun times, it’s also a way to generate long-term shared values, especially if those values include Martin Scorsese pictures. Hugo is also about the magic of movies and why we should pay attention to them, care for them and preserve them – all done with invention and panache. It pains me to think that we may never see it in 3D again but it remains a classic, nonetheless.
