“This Town” is set in rural New Zealand and deprives an unusual premise of dark humor: Sean (David White, also the writer / director), a young man accused of murdering his entire family and then firing him for technical reasons, falls in love with a naive country girl, Casey (Alice May Connolly). White’s film parodies the loose tongues and small aspirations of crazy small town guys and borrows the mockumentary productions from dead comedies like “The Office”. But beneath the film’s crooked exterior is a piercing darkness – a streak of real danger that flinches more than flinches.
Take Sean’s obsession with guns, for example. It’s one of the red flags that Pam (Robyn Malcolm), the policewoman who stopped in anger when Sean was acquitted, has been put on the evidence card, where she continues to gather evidence of his possible guilt. Another lead from Pam is Sean’s alleged drunken sexual assault on her nephew’s girlfriend. It doesn’t help that Sean is awkward and unfathomable. When he meets the unsuspecting Casey in a dating app and they hit it off over Chinese food and pink “Munta” (a bastardization of Fanta), Casey’s friends and family are alarmed.
Like any viewer who is familiar with the realities of misogyny. The mystery of whether Sean is a misunderstood “good guy” or a sociopathic killer keeps “This Town” walking a tightrope between twee comedy and “dateline” drama, playing with the fear that gender violence causes in many of us. Yet White misses the opportunity for real satire and accelerates the many topical issues raised by the script – police corruption, mental health, gun crime – into a feel-good outcome that leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
This city
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. View topic.
