For the purposes of remaining on the right side of an embargo, Eagle vs Shark will get the full review treatment at a later date. But it’s with hard-to-contain fondness that I can report, following last night’s pre-festival Gala, on the irresistible geekery of Taika Waititi’s lionhearted comedy. More so than spotting Napoleon Dynamite cribbage, what seems to have been lost in translation amongst a slew of glib, offshore criticism is the inherent New Zealandness of the film; something the Embassy’s parochial audience had no trouble interpreting. As well as transcending the cringe factor of provincial Kiwi vernacular, Waititi cushions the oft-told whimsy of an awkward romance with a higher appreciation of the lowbrow, and a weakness for all things Wellington. Another testament to the city’s incestuous creative community, the sights are lived-in, personalised and not at all obnoxiously touristy, while the sounds – The Phoenix Foundation, chiefly – are nothing if not tailor-made for the incandesce of cinema. Pooling local talent, Jemaine Clement is quite obviously at home playing a candlestick-making dweeb, but it’s Loren Horsley as The Girl who surprises and surpasses with an improbably infectious performance; at once gentle and exaggerated, it’s the stuff of an unfathomable crush. Though Waititi appears to be grafting the skin of a Michel Gondry concoction onto Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, the film’s soft-spoken modesty – a shy thing hiding behind the curtain, as introduced by its director – underlines it culturally. As for anyone seeking an antidote to the buffoonery of Sione’s Wedding, its appeal will be immense.—Tim Wong