“We Were Dangerous” is a surprisingly funny film for a movie whose central conflict is the sterilization of a group of young women on the fringes of society in 1950s New Zealand.
Knowing the project, which debuted at SXSW in Austin March 8, is executive-produced by from Taika Waititi and Carthew Neal’s Piki Films certainly informs how the film approaches its troubling topic — much like the production company’s Holocaust-set “Jojo Rabbit” — with such levity, the majority of the credit for the heartfelt tone goes to a trio of women: writer Maddie Dai, director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu and producer Morgan Waru.
“We Were Dangerous” stars Erana James, Nathalie Morris and Manaia Hall as the three girls being held in a delinquent program by a matron (played by Rima Te Wiata). And though the film revolves around female solidarity, the seed that sparked “We Were Dangerous,” which marks the directorial debut...
Knowing the project, which debuted at SXSW in Austin March 8, is executive-produced by from Taika Waititi and Carthew Neal’s Piki Films certainly informs how the film approaches its troubling topic — much like the production company’s Holocaust-set “Jojo Rabbit” — with such levity, the majority of the credit for the heartfelt tone goes to a trio of women: writer Maddie Dai, director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu and producer Morgan Waru.
“We Were Dangerous” stars Erana James, Nathalie Morris and Manaia Hall as the three girls being held in a delinquent program by a matron (played by Rima Te Wiata). And though the film revolves around female solidarity, the seed that sparked “We Were Dangerous,” which marks the directorial debut...
- 3/22/2024
- by Jennifer Maas
- Variety Film + TV
We Were Dangerous begins so strongly and so confidently that it promises to take a grim but familiar period movie trope — the victimization of vulnerable young women in an authoritarian, male-dominated, post-war Christian world — and turn it inside out, mining it for deadpan, absurdist comedy instead of political outrage and focusing on the unexpectedly deep and moving friendships that can be made even in the darkest of situations. Frustratingly, it never quite comes together as the wry, subversive coming-of-age movie that it might have been, but the performances are powerful enough in Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s debut that its emotional heft is surprisingly indelible.
Initially narrated by the formidable Matron (Rima Te Wiata), this 1954-set film tells the story of Nellie (Erana James) and Daisy (Manaia Hall), both attendees at a New Zealand school for incorrigible delinquent girls. Matron thinks that her charges have little to offer society, believing that...
Initially narrated by the formidable Matron (Rima Te Wiata), this 1954-set film tells the story of Nellie (Erana James) and Daisy (Manaia Hall), both attendees at a New Zealand school for incorrigible delinquent girls. Matron thinks that her charges have little to offer society, believing that...
- 3/9/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
A small but spirited 1954-set drama about a group of “delinquent” teenage girls who plan a daring escape from the one-dock New Zealand island where they’ve been sent for institutional Christianization, Māori filmmaker Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s “We Were Dangerous” does its best to remain upbeat as the agents of colonization try to assert their control over its characters’ bodies. It’s a promising debut that does its best to remain upbeat as the agents of colonization try to assert their control over its characters’ bodies, as Stewart-Te Whiu skillfully combines the pluck of “A Little Princess” with the irreverence of executive producer Taika Waititi’s “Hunt for the Wilderpeople.”
Light on its feet even in the face of forced sterilization, Stewart-Te Whiu’s debut wields its upbeat tone as a rousing show of defiance unto itself; if that means whittling this story down to its 82-minute skeleton in...
Light on its feet even in the face of forced sterilization, Stewart-Te Whiu’s debut wields its upbeat tone as a rousing show of defiance unto itself; if that means whittling this story down to its 82-minute skeleton in...
- 3/8/2024
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
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