Eagle Vs Shark

Eagle Vs Shark

Take dark, dead-pan New Zealand humour, add lashing of teen-style awkwardness and angst felt by two 30-year-olds and mix a bit of uncomfortable and unusual romance and your partway to describing Eagle vs Shark. The New Zealand-made romantic comedy was written and directed by Taika Waititi. Haven't heard of him? You will. The 32-year-old comedian and actor has already received an Oscar nomination for his short film Two Cars, One Night and won stack of film awards – and he's only been making films for four years.

Eagle vs Shark stars Loren Horsley as the movie's lead Lily, an awkward fast-food worker who falls in love with self-absorbed mulleted geek Jarrod, played by Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame. Taika admits this film was basically just about getting his mates together to make a film – Loren is his partner and he has been friends with Jermaine for 12 years.

“All the rest of the character are based on people that I know, or have met or experiences I’ve had," Taika says.

The Eagle Vs Shark story is about the blossoming – or crumbling – relationship of the socially-inept Lily and Jarrod, and their dysfunctional families.

“I think Jarrod is combination of lots of the worst traits in men, including myself and a lot of the guys I know when they were a teenagers.

"He’s such a dick, but I can sympathise with him a lot just knowing where he’s coming from in terms of family and who he’s trying to be. And I feel sorry for people like that, because I think we’re all trying to live up to some sort of expectation and he’s taken it a little too far.

"All the characters really, when you look at them, are just teenagers in 30-year-old bodies.”

The character Lily was created by Loren, and Taika says she based Lily on herself as a teenager.

"The idea is there's this girl who really can’t interact with anyone, and we put this complete dork in to...