Comedian Rose Matafeo Shines Bright in Baby Done

Directed by Curtis Vowell and produced by Taika Waititi, award-winning comic Rose Matafeo “is wonderful in irresistible film about parenthood”, Guardian Australia critic Luke Buckmaster writes in a review of New Zealand comedy/drama, Baby Done.

“Matafeo’s wonderful, compulsively affable performance is core to the film’s irresistible good-naturedness: its spirit, pluck, bounce,” Buckmaster writes. “You want to be her friend – like a chatty seatmate on a plane, who can judge the mood and is somebody you actually want to talk to.

“The film coasts along just fine, switching from comedy to drama swiftly thanks to humour that’s so invested in characters and feeling. The stakes are never high but you care for these people; you want them to be happy. Always there is lightness of touch, with many small situations triggering giggles and sometimes guffaws — from the appearance of Brian the ‘pregaphile’ (Nic Sampson) to a confetti bomb detonation moment that well and truly tickled my ribs.

“Baby Done is funny; it’s sweet; it means something. Most of all it’s charming.”

Vowell is the director of the 2013 film, Fantail.

Original article by Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian, October 20, 2020.

Photo by Madman.