Whale Rider
Whale Rider
WHALE RIDER is an empowering and uplifting movie with a wonderful lead performance by 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes -- in fact, she is now the youngest woman to ever be nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress -- about a young Maori girl in New Zealand. In trying to win her grandfather's love she subverts centuries of patriarchy. The movie is an irresistible tearjerker.
"Once the picture kicks into gear, it has the inspiring resonance of found art." ~ Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times.
From ~ Ernest Hardy's L.A. Weekly review of June 2003: "The longing for father-love that fuels WHALE RIDER connects it to other recent teen films — the Dardenne brothers’ THE SON; Pete Sollett’s RAISING VICTOR VARGAS; Lukas Moodysson’s LILYA 4-EVER. WHALE RIDER offers the catharsis that is often so elusive in real life. When children look into their parents’ eyes, they hope to see themselves reflected back, wrapped in love and security. If they don’t, all manner of damage is done. So much of the rage that permeates not only American culture — from the syncopated anger of hip-hop to the thin-lipped fury of Fox News anchors, to our fearless leader in the White House — but the world at large, can be traced to daddy issues, the desire to find him, to curse, emulate or avenge him, to win his approval. When I saw the film earlier this year at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the audience laughed in all the right places, but more importantly, they didn’t laugh in the wrong places. Today’s film audiences seem increasingly to use laughter, whether nervous or superior, to distance themselves from their own more complicated or emotional responses to film. WHALE RIDER plows right through that hipster/detached pose. In a crowd filled with punks of all ages, senior citizens, studied bohemians and assorted other citizenry, shared sniffles filled the auditorium from a group of people responding not just as spectators or pop-culture consumers, but as community." For the full review: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/29/film-hardy.php
"Once the picture kicks into gear, it has the inspiring resonance of found art." ~ Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times.
From ~ Ernest Hardy's L.A. Weekly review of June 2003: "The longing for father-love that fuels WHALE RIDER connects it to other recent teen films — the Dardenne brothers’ THE SON; Pete Sollett’s RAISING VICTOR VARGAS; Lukas Moodysson’s LILYA 4-EVER. WHALE RIDER offers the catharsis that is often so elusive in real life. When children look into their parents’ eyes, they hope to see themselves reflected back, wrapped in love and security. If they don’t, all manner of damage is done. So much of the rage that permeates not only American culture — from the syncopated anger of hip-hop to the thin-lipped fury of Fox News anchors, to our fearless leader in the White House — but the world at large, can be traced to daddy issues, the desire to find him, to curse, emulate or avenge him, to win his approval. When I saw the film earlier this year at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the audience laughed in all the right places, but more importantly, they didn’t laugh in the wrong places. Today’s film audiences seem increasingly to use laughter, whether nervous or superior, to distance themselves from their own more complicated or emotional responses to film. WHALE RIDER plows right through that hipster/detached pose. In a crowd filled with punks of all ages, senior citizens, studied bohemians and assorted other citizenry, shared sniffles filled the auditorium from a group of people responding not just as spectators or pop-culture consumers, but as community." For the full review: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/29/film-hardy.php
Whale Rider Get Tickets
There are currently no showtimes for this film. Please check back soon.