HEAD SOUTH
THREE STARS Angus has two days to learn bass guitar, form a band and impress a girl.
PERIOD DRAMA NZ English #HEADSOUTH Starring Ed Oxenbould, Benee
It’s 1979 in the sleepy city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Teenage Angus (Ed Oxenbould) suddenly wakes up, metaphorically speaking, when Fraser, owner of the music store Middle Earth Records (yes, really) introduces him to punk.
It was like aliens had abducted is brain, so energetic, so intoxicating, so utterly different was the sound. Thus Angus decides to start a band. The problem is that he’s already told Malcolm, the slightly scary lead singer of ultra-cool rock group The Cursed, that he’s already got a band. Well, you would. Now Angus has got two days to learn bass, find band-members and write some songs before his group opens in support.
Back home his mother has walked out on his Dad (Marton Csokas - MY FATHER ROMULUS) who, set adrift, has a mid-life crisis and buys a sports car. Why this is relevant becomes clear in the film’s closing moments. With his father distracted, Angus has time to be distracted himself, first by Holly, a hot looking girl from London - the seat of all things fashionable and aspirational - and then by less hot but musically inclined Kirsten (NZ artist Benee) who helps Angus get the band together.
This outwardly autobiographical story from writer/director Jonathan Ogilvie is a delightfully nostalgic affair with a wry sense of humour. It has a genuine sense of time and place that neatly draws out the yawning emptiness of small town life and the ways in which we try to plug the gaps. Like playing music, and how punk was a boon for those that didn’t have any musical talent. There’s also a fun sub-plot about how image and marketing can carry a lack of creativity.
Where HEAD SOUTH heads south is in story threads that have been included presumably because they’re a big part of Ogilvie’s life but don’t necessarily belong to Angus. Such as Holly’s creepy brother who takes inappropriate photos in exchange for a bass guitar - it comes from nowhere, goes nowhere and undercuts events surrounding it. Likewise the tragic denouement which blindsides the entire film. A life changing moment for Ogilvie I’m sure, but one that feels entirely tacked on to Angus.
That aside, there’s still a lot to like about HEAD SOUTH, a chirpy, good-natured film about living in the 70s when punk was new and KY made great hair gel.
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