A goat and a funky grave.

My Glasgow Film Festival adventure started with the screening of the film "Boy", on the 16th of Feb.

When I went on the GFF website to pick which movies I want to see for the blog (and for my personal enjoyment), this movie just popped right out.
First of all, the fact that they sum it up by saying, [t]he year is 1984 and Michael jackson is taking a small town in New Zealand by storm; no one loves him more than young Boy, was enough to convince me that I needed to see this. It also doesn't hurt that it's the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time and that it won several awards at film festivals all over the world.

I mean, how can you not like this?

But Michael Jackson is hardly the centre of the story. (Obviously.) The film is more about how two brothers who live with their grandmother, meet their estranged father for the first time, as far as they can remember, after he gets out of prison. The elder brother also has a goat as a pet, which I found extremely intriguing since that's my favourite animal.
Now, don't let the seriousness of the topic mislead you, one of the best aspects of the film is that is tells a serious story in a comical way that just makes you leave the theatre with a smile on your face. (How's that for advertising!)

It's everything a movie should be (according to me at least), light, cheesiness-free and with an ending that won't give you delusional expectations of reality yet will not make you wanna jump off a bridge after watching the movie.

Boy, his father & Rocky

The hilarious and well written script was delivered by an incredibly talented cast, specially the children, who had better comedic timing than Graham Norton. And Boy's younger brother Rocky was definitely my favourite. Not only is he adorable, but he has some extremely funny moments.
I can't really compare this movie to anything, it stands on its own.

All in all, a very moving story, with a lot of laugh out loud moments. And all this was accompanied by a beautiful and simple score, that like everything else in "Boy", made the film flow that much smoother.

The awesome shirt.

Like I said, I won't exactly be "reviewing the films I see here per se, I'll just share my random thoughts about them. And on that note, here are the 5 things I will take away from this movie:
1. Life sometimes really is more a comedy than a drama.
2. It wakes up the child in you, which is always a good thing.
3. My fondness for goats has only grown and now I wish I could have one as a pet too.
4. I want a shirt like Boy's. ----->
5. Boy & Rockys mothers grave is extremely funky, I cannot describe it, but trust me it is funky (as in cool and awesome, not the other definition), if you ever see the movie you'll know what I'm talking about. And no, obviously I was unable to find a picture to illustrate what I mean.

If all this hasn't peaked your interest, here's the trailer:

One last piece of advice, make sure you watch the movie with subtitles otherwise you'll get a headache from concentrating so hard.