Last week I capped a whole bunch of New Zealand short films and I mentioned I was going to cap some New Zealand movies. Anyway, here's a couple of very dark kitchen sink dramas from director Gregory King.

A Song of Good

2008

A Song of Good is a 2008 drama where Gary (Gareth Reeves), who lives with his sister Rachel (Danielle Cormack) and her son, as well as his father Ron (Ian Mune). One day he breaks into a house and when confronted with the resident, ends up raping her. Gary is shocked by what he's done so he goes about trying to go straight including getting a job as a burger joint. But it becomes increasingly hard for him to escape his past.

A more 'polished' effort than Christmas but definitely still a whole lot of depression porn. It does have an interesting ending though that almost redeems

Darien Takle film clip (see below)

Christmas

2002

Christmas is a 2003 drama where Keri (David Hornblow) reluctantly comes for Christmas to his family with all his siblings still living at home with their parents. They all have their own issues like an eldest sister who lives with her two children and partner in the basement and obsessively cleans the house to avoid dealing with her shitty drunken partner. Another sister who's pregnant and doesn't know what to do about it. A brother who's a total dopehead and parents who just seem to be together because they don't know what else to do. Keri himself is broke and owes money to a number of people plus there's something wrong with his arse which looks nasty. Things slowly build to breaking point and there's always the feeling that something real bad is about to happen.

Very much in the genre of depression porn where nothing good ever seems to happen but a certain tension does build giving an overall feeling that something is going to explode at any moment. There's even some funny moments throughout but how you deal with the grungy feel of the movie will go a long way towards whether or not you'll like that movie. I enjoyed this a bit more that A Song For Good, but it's super depressing which I kinda like. And you can tell it's not an American movie. If it was, it would've ended with someone killing the entire family. So that's a relief I guess...

Helene Otene Pearse film clip (still below)