Taika Cohen's lo-fi love/hate story resembles Napoleon Dynamite not just in terms of its bad 80s sportswear, unmanageable hair, and blank-faced brand of humour, but also in its recognition of the fact that the central nerd is not a well-meaning loser, but actually bit of a git. Borderline sociopath and self-proclaimed depressive in Jarrod's (Jemaine Clement) case. While this provides the seed for a more soulful film than Jared Hess's minor classic, it also lacks that film's joke quotient. For a quirky sub-90-minuter with minute pretensions, played alongside an animated love story played out by half-eaten fruit, Jarrod is simply too bleak a character. Meanwhile, Lily (Loren Horsley) is too sketchy to win our sympathy; too empty to provide the narrative with anything but a bucket for Jarrod's often wittily written bile. By the time the repetition starts kicking in at about the hour mark, you'll be wishing she'd just walk home.
Review of Eagle vs Shark
