--- title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople Review: A Stealth Charmer description: The cranky charisma of the performers, plus the cheerfully idiosyncratic rhythms of Waititi’s filmmaking, keep it clicking canonical: https://time.com/4389837/review-new-zealand-comedy-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-01T17:19:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:59:11.573Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Review: New Zealand Comedy 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' Has Charm to Spare og:description: The cranky charisma of the performers, plus the cheerfully idiosyncratic rhythms of Waititi’s filmmaking, keep it clicking og:url: https://time.com/4389837/review-new-zealand-comedy-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d0af01c6518b43/69889a370b72e31ed56ea064/hunt-for-the-wilderpeople.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Film Review Hunt For The Wilderpeople og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: New Zealand Comedy 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' Has Charm to Spare twitter:description: The cranky charisma of the performers, plus the cheerfully idiosyncratic rhythms of Waititi’s filmmaking, keep it clicking twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d0af01c6518b43/69889a370b72e31ed56ea064/hunt-for-the-wilderpeople.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: New Zealand Comedy _Hunt for the Wilderpeople_ Has Stealth Charm to Spare > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jul 1, 2016 5:19 PM UTC  Julian Dennison, left, and Sam Neill, right, in "Hunt For The Wilderpeople. Julian Dennison, left, and Sam Neill, right, in "Hunt For The Wilderpeople.The Orchard—AP  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jul 1, 2016 5:19 PM UTC Coming-of-age stories, finding-yourself-in-the-wilderness stories, fugitives-on-the-run stories: If you’ve been watching movies for any length of time, you’ve already seen multiple versions of all of these. But you probably haven’t seen anything quite like New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi’s [_Hunt for the Wilderpeople_](http://time.com/4337977/summer-movies-2016-anticipated/item/hunt-for-the-wilderpeople-june-24/)_,_ which rolls all of those genres into a buoyant, expansive, breezily enjoyable whole. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a comedy with solid dramatic underpinnings or a drama so light on its feet that it plays like the purest comedy. Either way, the cranky charisma of the performers, plus the cheerfully idiosyncratic rhythms of Waititi’s filmmaking, keep it clicking. Twelve-year-old Ricky (Julian Dennison) is an alleged juvenile delinquent in the making: His crimes, as enumerated by the social worker who has escorted him to one foster home after another (the drily hilarious Rachel House), include “stealing, spitting, throwing rocks, kicking stuff and defacing stuff” as well as the classic “loitering.” These transgressions, shown in a fleet, skittering montage, are hardly grave. But no one seems to want Ricky, a heavy-set kid who puts up a glum gangsta front but who actually has a fondness for reading and a knack for putting his feelings into haiku on the fly. He finds his place, at last, in a ramshackle house in the middle of nowhere with Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her gruff, laconic husband Hec (Sam Neill). Bella is a lover of cat figurines. She can also kill a wild hog, with barely a tussle, using just a knife. Ricky comes to adore her—you understand why when you hear the ridiculous song she composes and performs for his thirteenth birthday—but her sudden death leaves him and Hec stranded emotionally. Hec doesn’t seem to care much for Ricky. And so, knowing that he’s going to be sent off to another home, Ricky runs off into the bush with his dog, Tupac. Hec finds him, but a series of mini-disasters keep the duo trekking through the wilderness for months. They come to understand each other, but it takes longer than you’d think for them to actually like each other. Waititi adapted the film from New Zealand novelist Barry Crump’s 1986 _Wild Pork and Watercress_. But if you’ve seen Waititi’s previous film, the wild, woolly and jovial vampire comedy _What We Do in the Shadows_ (featuring Jemaine Clement, from _Flight of the Conchords_), you’ll notice his distinctive, oddball stamp on this one. Waititi has a gift for keeping a story moving not in a straight, predictable line but in an errant zigzag that holds your attention: As a filmmaker, he’s like a kid jumping from one jagged rock to another—you keep watching just to see how he’ll complete each crazy leap. He also appears in a cameo here, during a funeral sequence that’s almost criminally funny. _Hunt for the Wilderpeople_—the title refers to Ricky’s realization that he and Hec are like wildebeests on the run—is made up of dozens of familiar elements, but Waititi assembles them into something wise and generous and eccentrically funny. Glimpsed from afar, it might look an ordinary creature. You have to get up close to see how rare it is. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4389837/review-new-zealand-comedy-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4389837/review-new-zealand-comedy-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople/"},"headline":"Review: New Zealand Comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople Has Stealth Charm to Spare","datePublished":"2016-07-01T17:19:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:59:11.573Z","description":"The cranky charisma of the performers, plus the cheerfully idiosyncratic rhythms of Waititi’s filmmaking, keep it clicking","url":"https://time.com/4389837/review-new-zealand-comedy-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d0af01c6518b43/69889a370b72e31ed56ea064/hunt-for-the-wilderpeople.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d0af01c6518b43/69889a370b72e31ed56ea064/hunt-for-the-wilderpeople.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Film Review Hunt For The Wilderpeople","caption":"Julian Dennison, left, and Sam Neill, right, in \"Hunt For The Wilderpeople.","creditText":"The Orchard—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4389837/review-new-zealand-comedy-hunt-for-the-wilderpeople/","name":"Review: New Zealand Comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople Has Stealth Charm to Spare"}}]}] ```