Punch

Three stars for Conan Hayes and occasionally Jordan Osterhof. Conan and his character pull this film from the unthinkable, unwatchable disaster it is.

Punch. The telltale name suggests you will get quite a literate intellectual and emotional punch delivered just to your door, with no delay.

Do the producers get off on the violence they bring on screen? How many more hate crimes do we have to depict in such meticulous snd thought-out detail, how many more scenes of despicable fights, misery and human atrocities do we have to stuff the cinematic legacy with? The blood gushing out, the bone breaking fist fights, the heinous rape with no warning, any other monstrosity that comes to mind? Rest assured, it's in this film.

I believe LGBTQ+ representation on film should be done cognizant of what came before, as well as how the content being produced influences the present what it insinuates. Upon watching "Punch" I can hardly imagine the idea behind the work, other than bringing some good-old hardcore violence, yet again making the queer people watching and everyone else involved feel awful. Why? And while the small-town homophobic gore plot has already been used in a million other productions, there is a way to depict such struggle (emotional and physical!) without imposing on the viewer the gut-wrenching scenery for most of the movie.

Living in such environments is extremely isolating and emotionally debilitating, which unfortunately is not nearly shown in "Punch". The sweet openly gay Maori student enjoys his life in a remote hut, frequently walking around the town not caring what other people think. He finds a friend in a macho competitive boxing highschooler. While the nature is breathtaking and there is great chemistry between the lead actors, the film is broken down by choppy and redundant cinematography.

I wish this movie showed an endearing love story of two young teens exploring the world in spite of the constraints of a close-minded reality, but it fails to connect the dots.

My first problem was the enormous difficulty I had in believing for even a nanosecond that Conan Hayes playing Whetu was a Maori. The second was imagining that twenty six year old Jordan Oosterhof as Jim Richardson was a seventeen year old boxer. Yes, he was fit and did a good impression of punching to a lay person like me but his pretty face, with its unbroken nose, was completely unconvincing.

The other unconvincing thing was the burgeoning friendship between Whetu and Jim. That Jim put his arm round Whetu in front of small-minded townsfolk just didn't compute. Even more so when this gave Ron leverage over him.

Tim Roth as Dad gave a good performance but what else what would we have expected?

The cast tried their best with a mediocre script that just didn't gel with the supposed characters of the players. Lyrical outbursts were just not appropriate to the personalities of the situation of a small hick town.

As the film rushed to its conclusion, few loose ends were resolved. Arson, betting, breach of contract, imminent death, relationships. Everything was left in the air. While we were wondering about this, the film ended with the performance of a song of such cloying sentimentality that I nearly gagged.

So, there were a few good moments but most of the film was incoherent. I cannot really recommend it.

I was expecting more strangeness from Welby Ings, whose short "Boy" (2004) was engagingly creepy. This is more conventional and grim, with homophobic violence and the poetic slow-mo gore of desperate boxing.

It's a little predictable. The town of Pirau (meaning "rotten") is hypocritically homophobic. The butchest characters turn out to be the queerest. Jim (engaging Jordan Oosterhof) is ill-at-ease from beginning to end with the role of boxer that his father (obviously wanting his son to be what he couldn't) pushes him into - shades of "Tea and Sympathy" (1956) - and the central issue of him finding his sexuality is familiar. What happens to Whetu (Conan Hayes), a young Maori femme on the way to spread his, um, wings in Sydney, comes as little surprise. There are some surprises and subtlety, though. In a single gesture and a few seconds of action, our view of Whetu's role changes 180 degrees - or perhaps that should be basement to penthouse.

As usual in Aotearoa, the scenery threatens to steal the show, in this case the dunes of, probably, southern Kaipara, generally filmed in a gloomy afternoon light. The sex is poetic and inexplicit, fitting well into the storyline.

A couple of things strain credulity, high tech video gear in a remote shack far from the grid, and a high school boxer being set up in a high-stakes bout when he's so far never been seen in a ring with an opponent. But the ending is feel-good, if not what you might expect.

In a seaside small town, 17-year-old Jim is an aspiring boxer, training for his 1st professional bout. HIs coach is his father Stan, whose boxing gym has only Jim as its client, his day job is disapppearing, and (unknown to Jim) is dying of cancer. Mostly Jim sees his father as a repeated drunk, and he gets enticed to switch coaches.

Jim is also distracted by his girlfriend, who keeps wanting more of his time. But in his training runs, he meets becomes mates with Whetu, a Maori living on his own in a shack. Openly gay, Whetu is bullied, harassed, and worse, and wants to leave town immediately upon finishing school. While Jim spends a lot of time with Whelan, Jim can't stand up for, or defend him. As Jim prepares for his fight, he has to navigate his feelings towards his father, his girlfriend, and his new mate.

The scenery is nice, and the lead role is well acted. Also, as Whelan complains, the "straight boy" keeps going around shirtless, showing off his tempting body. There may be a bit too many training scenes, at the expense of more character development. Still, a decent gay coming-of-age story.

Punch certainly felt polished and pretty well developed. The cinematography and ambience worked for the film - it was actually quite beautiful.

What stops this film from being successful in my eyes was a slightly confused narrative alongside a dubious script. Without going into details, much of the characters' dialogue really feels like it needed a rewrite - it was awkward and a bit jarring in many parts and the actors struggled to make it believable.

Some characters and plot points felt undeveloped, and that might be due to the fact that the central story (the boxing match) altogether wasn't strong or compelling enough to carry the weight of the film all by itself.

All in all it was still a wonderful film and I would definitely encourage others to watch.