Get the latest gossip
‘Head South’ Review: A Mild-Mannered Tribute to a Formative New Zealand Punk Epoch
Jonathan Ogilvie’s 'Head South' opens this year's Rotterdam festival with a somewhat undercooked nostalgic flashback to 1979 Christchurch.
Joining a long line of filmmakers who’ve fictionalized their comings-of-age in one regional punk scene or another, veteran New Zealand writer-director Jonathan Ogilvie turns the clock back to 1979 Christchurch in “ Head South.” Its protagonist is the classic shy but would-be rebellious teen boy dared into starting his own band, whose first gig naturally provides an underdogs-triumphant climax. Angus (Ed Oxenbould) is a high-schooler intrigued by new U.K. sounds as yet little-heard hereabouts —though he can barely summon the courage to enter Middle Earth Records, where proprietor Fraser (Jackson Bliss) is the obvious go-to source for such breaking intel. Even after he cuts his shaggy hair to spiky brevity, then gets encouraged (by Fraser) and bullied (by Demos Murphy’s note-perfect local Rotten poseur Malcolm) into starting a band with knowing chemist-shop clerk Kirsten (Stella Bennett), Angus remains a wide-eyed naif.
Or read this on Variety
