ALIEN ADDICTION

Directed by: Shae Sterling

Starring: Jimi Jackson, Thomas Sainsbury, JoJo Waaka, Harry Summerfield, Ayham Ghalayini

In the small sleepy town of Waikato, in New Zealand, Riko and his mates spend all of their time getting wasted and generally hanging out. That all changes - kind of - for Riko when an alien spaceship crashlands in the nearby forest and he meets two aliens who have an agenda very similar to his own. Meanwhile a UFO expert has been tracking the spaceship with the intent of exposing the aliens to the general public…

Notwithstanding Peter Jackson’s early efforts, there's something about the New Zealand sense of humour which really clicks with me, from the likes of Deathgasm, The Devil Told Me To, Housebound and Hunt For The Wilderpeople. So as soon as I was offered a look at this new comedy I already had an inkling it would be up my street.

We meet Riko and his friends  getting high and playing a board game, before setting off to the local (only?) bar. Their journey there is very funny in and of itself and there is a spirit of Jackass in their hijinks. At the bar Riko is even able to chat up a couple of European tourists, explaining to them that other than the spectacular countryside there is actually very little to see or do in Waikato. This actually works and he's able to take one of the girls home with him. However, Riko lives with his full on Maori auntie, who is suddenly spouting nonsense about seeing eyeballs in the toilet and people living in the walls of their house.

It turns out that Auntie isn't crazy, as we find out in a flashback showing the two aliens searching for a substance to turn into a recreational psychotropic drug. That "substance" turns out to be human feces which they turn into a vapour. Yep, aliens are vaping on human poo. This bemuses Riko when he finds out that these two aliens are basically intergalactic stoners just like him and his mates. He takes them into the big city for a night on the town. Meanwhile, Ufologist Peter Mackintosh is following their trail also.

This is Shar Sterling's first time as a director of a feature film but he is no stranger to being behind the camera, having directed numerous shorts and documentaries. Nevertheless this is a great feature debut which mixes scatalogical humour with a lot of charm and even pathos. The special effects work is really good for things like the spaceship crash and the alien design is kept really simple - clearly they are alien humanoids but from a distance could probably pass. Probably. Even though their skin is blue.

In front of the camera, the performances are all great.  Veronika Edwards, who plays Auntie, had only been in one production before this and shows real strength of character and force of will when dealing with her nephew and aliens alike. The late JoJo Waaka is also great as Jacinta who runs the burger shack. Jimi Jackson is another actor with a very short resume but he is able to carry the central performance as Riko with aplomb, making his character really endearing and someone you actually want to hang out with.

THE VERDICT

Alien Addiction is a film which delivers the typical brand of New Zealand humour with a touch of scatalogical and stoner craziness.

8 out of 10 RECOMMENDED

MikeOutWest