iTROLL

Congratulations team on the Auckland victory! Absolutely amazing seeing Hweiling pick up best director, a true legend doing this since day one in 2003. Here we have a middle finger throw the rule book out romp that at times felt like a chilling dystopia on reflection. Programmed bots who mock and ridicule and fight without emotion? Some eerie parallels with the rise of the 4chan trolls and right wing incels in the real world we live in.

After insulting one too many innocent marginalised victims too many, enough is enough and our protagonist is actually established, chasing down the troll bot for a chance at revenge.

Only we don't really get that third act or culmination and the credits roll once the lair of bots is discovered and a pack of insults followed by screaming rage is our punchline.

Its fairly high energy, technically well made as always by Permanently Confused but I have a few issues with the film. Firstly I did not find the edit smooth, with a large number of shots throughout having slight continuity issues when viewing and considering the basic 50/50 camera rule.
The audio whilst clean for the most part had patches of a very low volume mix also where I felt some lines were delivered flat compared to those that weren't.
And for sound design whilst there were some terrific sound library choices, the spatial use of sound seemed very centred in terms of what we heard when it felt like the audio cues needed to actually be directed (and that obviously is nitpicking)

It also struck me that this had a weirdly similar plot device to the NZIFF winning short LET'S SETTLE THIS from Ngā Whanaunga, which also had a key dramatic driver of suddenly having the performers revealing fighting skills in an unexpected situation, but of course completely tonally separate.

What did work really well was an out of this world soundtrack and a couple of great performances on screen by our leading actor and actress. Plus Hweiling's direction was on point and the finale location popped in such glorious neon it felt like a homage to LIQUID SKY. I just think personally that a more satisfying conclusion would have done wonders for the film.

What in the raising the bar is this! Every year there are films that come along and just knock it out of the park. And here we are iTroll. A total killer on so many levels.
The choreography was so great and filmed with aplomb. Production value off the charts. I want to watch it again now to appreciate that final location again.

To me it felt as though there was more story to tell and we got cut off at the start of the third act? are we expecting a sequel?
Theres so much to mine in terms of theme and metaphor. A top notch effort from writing to delivery. This is the type of film that will blow live audiences away and I bet looks better the bigger screen its played on. Can't wait to see it at finals:)