ROMANTIC COMEDY; 1hr 33min
STARRING: Jermaine Clement, Loren Horsley
Animal magnetism: Clement and Horsley
Lily (Horsley) is a reject, shunned by her workmates at the Meaty Boy fast-food outlet and hopelessly taken with a prize nerd (Clement as Jarrod). Jarrod’s idea of a happening party is to dress as your favourite animal and play video games. (Who knows? Maybe it’s a New Zealand thing.) He’s a headcase, but Lily doesn’t mind — just as well, since a forgiving nature and low expectations are prerequisites for their on–off relationship.
The two visit Jarrod’s misfit family, which is excruciating in a deadpan-absurdist, Napoleon Dynamite way, although not as funny: where that film snuck up on you with sly insanity, this one’s affectations clobber you over the head. Jarrod’s tics and foibles do the winning trick in time, though, while Lily is a sweetheart from the start. And as perfect pairings tend to go, she could undoubtedly do worse.
