Episode 20: Thor: Ragnarok & Hunt For The Wilderpeople

Taika Waititi films. Sarah Watt, Max Tarrant, Jeremy Downing and William Chen discuss the films Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016). The discussion starts by talking about the wonderful pace and opening of Hunt For The Wilderpeople and Waititi’s knack for pathos. All of his films balance both sadness and joy extremely well. We talk about Taika Waititi’s status as an auteur and his strength as a visual storyteller. The cast in Thor: Ragnarok is very strong, with highlight performances from Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Jeff Goldblum. Disagreements are had around the strengths of Thor: Ragnarok, particularly around the structure of the film. We then talk about whether the films are definitively kiwi in their style and the politics around transposing this style onto the international stage, which develops into whether the style of the films are kiwi or just representative of Waititi’s style. This then develops into a discussion around self-deprecating humour and its origins. We finish by talking about the themes of colonisation and displacement in Thor: Ragnarok, and whether they are clear or not.