A grim New Zealand social realist drama that strives to twist its narrative into a redemptive arc.bunny king justice‘ has an unsettling tone to match its clunky title.
Bunny (Essie Davis) makes money by squeezing windshields. She has no home of her own and, for reasons that soon become apparent, no custody of her children. I would like to visit, but I can’t get permission from social services until the house is built.
Directed by Gayson Tabat, the film follows Bunny through a desperate and increasingly self-defeating effort to find a home in time for his daughter’s birthday, or find a way to be there with presents if it doesn’t. I’m chasing for them. For a while, “The Justice of Bunny King” seems to find a way out of poverty for a bunny grappling with a series of small cons to get what he needs. One is that wearing a pantsuit immediately changes people’s perception of her.)
Around the halfway point, Bunny sets out on a journey with Tonya (Thomasin Mackenzie). Tonya may have been abused in her own home, and her own story helps fill in the film’s notion of Bunny as a righteous and loving guardian that the authorities simply reject. be treated as human. But the film doesn’t have to stack the decks in Bunny’s favor—a less classy character might be more interesting—or look for a glimmer of hope in a story that barely has one.
bunny king justice
Unrated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. at the theater.