By EWAN MCDONALD
Imagine the scene: Hollywood's movers and shakers (that is, the accountants) have upped sticks (well, their Versace wardrobes and Mercedes) and decamped to Park City, Utah, one of the ritziest ski resorts in the country, for the week.
Their entertainment is 28 of the best independent movies from outside
the big studios and the edges of the known world (which, for these people, means further west than Malibu or south of San Diego).
Their horizons are about to be expanded further. Over the past week they have been introduced to strange cultures and their rituals: religious ceremonies such as the pilgrimage to the great temple of "Carisbrook;" the bizarre tithe known as "the student loan scheme;" the disturbing tones of "the Dunedin sound."
And they have been wondering whether they should get their chequebooks out and take these outlandish notions back to Hollywood.
For the Kiwi comedy-thriller Scarfies, already praised at the Cannes shindig, has been screening at the Sundance Film Festival, the prestigious bash initiated by Robert Redford which has become the avenue to Los Angeles for small, stylish art-house movies.
By all accounts (some of which, admittedly, have come from its makers), Scarfies has gone down well.
Scarfies, released on video today, is the story of a flatful of students, all newly arrived at Otago Uni, who find the previous tenant of the Dunedin mansion in which they're squatting (formerly a Victorian brothel) has left his valuable crop in the basement.
They sell it - the money's better in their hands than with the administrators of the student loan scheme - and use the proceeds to do up the Jap imports, buy a few toys and enjoy the bright lights of Dunedin.
A little later they're about to head off to Carisbrook for the big game when the aforementioned tenant returns to find his crop and prospects have gone. Golden handshakes are not part of terminating this contract, and besides, it's almost time for kick-off and some things are more important, so the flatties lock him in the basement while they decide what to do. Which may take a little time ...
Yes, it does read like something you've seen before, in different eras and from different places, but this is a genuinely funny New Zealand comedy (and it's probably been 15 years since you could write those words in one sentence - not since Came A Hot Friday).
The energetic young ensemble of Willa O'Neill, Neill Rea, Taika Cohen, Ashleigh Seagar and Charlie Bleakley are great value in this film directed by Robert Sarkies and written by his brother, Duncan. Which makes for predictable comparisons with America's black-comedy duo, Joel and Ethan Coen.
Come to think of it, didn't they make their breakthrough at Sundance? And look where they are now.
* Also out this week: Elmo in Grouchland, Blue Moon.
By EWAN MCDONALD
Imagine the scene: Hollywood's movers and shakers (that is, the accountants) have upped sticks (well, their Versace wardrobes and Mercedes) and decamped to Park City, Utah, one of the ritziest ski resorts in the country, for the week.
Their entertainment is 28 of the best independent movies from outside
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