EAGLE vs SHARK (2007)

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DIRECTOR: TAIKA WAITITI

CINEMATOGRAPHY: ADAM CLARK

WRITER: TAIKA WAITITI (written by)'/ TAIKA WAITITI & LOREN TAYLOR (Story)

BUDGET: ?

GROSS: $1,298,037 (worldwide)

Taika Waititi was nominated for an academy award for his short film Two Cars, One Night back in 2003 and more recently his film JoJo Rabbit picked up a number of Oscar noms and Waititi got a win for Best Adapted Screenplay. But lets go back to his first full-length feature, Eagle Vs Shark. And what a wonderful debut it was.

The film is a sweet and awkward love story featuring two non-traditional leads. Lily is a shy girl that works at a fast food burger joint. Jarrod is a nerd who works at an electronics store. He is the best at a Mortal Kombat-type video game and has parties where people come dressed up as their favorite animal.

The comparisons to Napoleon Dynamite are obvious and many people were comparing it to the Jared Hess surprise hit of a few years prior. Sure, I can see it: the whole nerd/dork thinks he's cool male lead. But these are two very different films.

While Napoleon Dynamite was more of a pure comedy, Eagle Vs Shark has a romantic and dramatic undertone that Dynamite didn't. In Eagle Vs Shark Jarrod is on a mission to get revenge on the bully that had beat him up in high school and spends much of the film setting up and training for, the 'big fight' (which when it does arrive is a very funny and also quite moving scene). Eagle Vs Shark has its own sensibilities and sense of humour.

I found it charming, awkward, funny, touching and one of those little-known gems that Filmed But Not Forgotten is all about.