Summary
A semi-autobiographical journey through late 1970s New Zealand, capturing the angst and music of a transformative era.
Jonathan Ogilvie’s semi-autobiographical second feature marks a sharp departure from his debut film, Lone Wolf, a loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad. While Lone Wolf maintained a carefully crafted distance through heavy use of surveillance footage, this follow-up is warm, intimate, and very personal.
In HEAD SOUTH, Ogilvie captures a pivotal turning point in a young New Zealand schoolboy’s life, where his crushes, social standing, and parental relationships all shift to the beat of a late 1970s soundtrack. Opening in Christchurch in 1979, and framed in the nostalgic trappings of a home movie, Angus (Ed Oxenbould) has never been part of the cool crowd. Home is a mundane affair, with his recently separated dad (Marton Csokas) living a life of routine and pre-prepared meals.
This changes when his London-based brother sends him a record in the post, and he begins his journey through Middle-Earth (Records). The introduction of Public Image Ltd. is so powerful that it changes the film’s aspect ratio, literally widening Angus’s world. Without thinking, he lies his way into band life, partly motivated by his crush on Holly (Roxie Mohebbi) and his growing friendship with Kirsten (Stella ‘Benee’ Bennett).
Ogilvie knows his music history, having made music videos for the Flying Nun label before moving to feature films. His style, filtered through nostalgia, blends remembered aesthetics with ideas that feel right even if not entirely accurate. Yet, despite familiar coming-of-age beats, the film’s killer soundtrack —featuring Toy Love, Magazine, Marching Girls, The Scavengers, and PiL — still resonates with the disaffected more than four decades later. (To see what was happening in Australia at the time, check out Richard Lowenstein’s Dogs in Space and related documentaries).
Oxenbould plays a wonderful ‘everyboy,’ the kind you can readily believe would start a band to impress a woman while being hopelessly awkward at it. Mohebbi exudes cool as the object of Angus’s affections. Yet the real standouts here are Csokas and Bennett. The former vacillates between earning our laughs and empathy, being even more desperate than Angus to prove his cool cred. Pop star Bennett, in her feature debut, is so good that she just feels like she was meant to be part of this film.
With shades of a post-punk Sing Street, Ogilvie perhaps only falters in the final act when the plot points pile up, leading to a series of whiplash emotional moments and ending on a downbeat. Which might be the most authentic element of the whole affair, serving as a reminder that the soundtracks of our lives aren’t always happy ones.
2024 | New Zealand | DIRECTOR: Jonathan Ogilvie | WRITERS: Jonathan Ogilvie | CAST: Ed Oxenbould, Stella Bennett, Roxie Mohebbi, Marton Csokas | DISTRIBUTOR: Melbourne International Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8-24 August 2024 (Melbourne International Film Festival)
