The Case of Mutton Dressed as Lamb

I went and saw Black Sheep the other day at Hoyts Regent on Manners. Black Sheep is a horror comedy in the vein of Shaun of the Dead and Braindead, and seeing this film in the Regent kind of added to the creepiness of this cinematic experience.

In the end, the film is okay - gross, amusing, not too long - but one thing got to me. The film is undoubtedly a New Zealand experience, with truck loads of kiwiana wheeled on to the set and thrown at the camera. And while sometimes it merges seamlessly into the context of the story (I suppose sheep-shagging could fall under this category), there are instances where the obvious desire on the part of the film-makers to add something distinctly "kiwi" to the film just leaves me wincing.

This is probably more a foible of my own than something to be held against the film, but while I enjoy films about New Zealand, I do tend to cringe when the "New Zealandness" is taken to such extremes that the whole experience ends up feeling more contrived than usual. In trying to portray an every day New Zealand experience, I think it is actually quite artificial to expect all New Zealanders to be reading New Zealand literature (not a slur on the Penguin History of New Zealand, as it is an amazing book), listening to purely New Zealand music (not everyone has the radio permanently tuned to Kiwi FM, as the ratings probably attest), and speaking in purely New Zealand cliché (American culture has a bit more influence in people's daily exchanges than even I am willing to admit in polite conversation).

It was that more than anything else in an otherwise mediocre movie that left me with a bitter aftertaste. Perhaps I am just overly sensitive to this, and pick up the Kiwi references more than others would purely because I am attuned to them and prefer them to be used sparingly. I always thought Once Were Warriors got the mix right, but then it is an entirely different kind of film altogether. But I will continue to go to the cinema to see if I can find one that meets my exacting standards.

Verdict: Yeah, but no