What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
What We Do in the Shadows earns its 8.5 by finding a joke the vampire genre had somehow left lying on the ground for a century. What if immortal creatures of the night still had to argue about whose turn…
Director: Taika Waititi
Taika Waititi built a register in New Zealand independent film, Boy, What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, that runs on deadpan delivery, awkward pauses and sudden sincerity. He usually appears in his own films in a supporting part.
Thor: Ragnarok imported that wholesale into Marvel and rescued a character the previous two films had made dull. Jojo Rabbit, in which he plays an imaginary Hitler, won him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The criticism is that the comic register has started to override the material, and Thor: Love and Thunder is the usual exhibit. The earlier New Zealand films are where the approach is most controlled.
