Spoiler Alert

Without a doubt the best film in its heat, and one of the top films out of Christchurch this year. The storyline is unique, and gripping, the deadpan humour of the entire ridiculous situation just holds the viewer through the whole thing. The production quality is also very high. Many films have either a high quality unique story that leans heavily into the given genre, or excellent acting and cinematography. This film has both together, and that is a far rarer combination. Excellent work.

Well thats it. RAJ are undeniable professionals at pulling out stunner after stunner each year. This is without a doubt their most mature offering and a true evolution of their art. The camera work, editing, grade, sound design is absolutely flawless!
The industry jokes had me in stitches and I needed to take it back to make sure I didn't miss a line of dialogue (which no word was wasted). In other words this film was so tight and tidy it could be studied.

Well well well, Rabid Aunty Jean have done it again, or have they? This is one of those films I love to watch from a filmmaking perspective, but it's not a film that I ‘love’. Fully recognize the talent of the pros on display. AJ would have LOVED the green apple joke!

https://www.tiktok.com/@ajinhd123/video/6989157123355577602?lang=en

Great use/BEST use of Cat and Mouse genre! Honestly the genre aspect is what will set you apart from the rest, and will probably give you the win! Stunning stunning stunning cinematography!!! This is in the top 3 for the city, and I look forward to watching it again on the big screen at entX!

I feel like the premise allowed the characters to feel a lot more genuine compared to previous RAJ entries.
I feel like the comedy didn't successfully iterate throughout the movie; it was fairly consistently tame.
I really applaud not going for the single shocking element again. I would like to see a more ambitious film from this team though.
I feel like every scene for the past couple years is in a park or a very nice house! There's so much more potential in this comp!
I would love for these folks to make something that's truly shocking and unexpected, but not in a crass way!
I'd like to see them embrace an entirely fresh aesthetic!

The technical elements are quite strong, though the cinematography is at times hampered by the aforementioned bland settings.
Additionally, the edit and sound mix don't feel quite as tight this year?

I really enjoyed the tone; super consistent, warm, and gentle. There was clearly a very steady directorial hand at work, supported by consistent, confident performances!

Would love to see this team make...
A live action Wallace and Grommit movie?

Shay! Horay!

Great performances. Great premise. Great execution. Sweet vengeance is surely to be found.

I love that you made Hagley Park not look like Hagley Park.

If I spent my whole 48 Hours setting up a single shot to look as flawless and cinematic as possible, it still wouldn't look as good as Rabid Aunty Jean's worst frame (although how can they have a worst when none of them are bad?). A great (and deeply relatable) story this year. Also, who knew there were that many different ways to menacingly eat an apple?

Excellent as always from this team. Very enjoyable story and made more easy to be invested in by great technical prowess. These guys knock it out of the park each year with unique stories and clearly made within the 48hr timeline, which has to be a consideration seemingly this year. I think it should win in the Christchurch finals. Good work.

5/5

I always look forward to seeing what Rabid Aunty Jean do for 48 hours and this might be my favourite of theirs so far! Obviously they are very strong on the technical side, but what I love most from this team is the story.
Rabid Aunty Jean's incorporation of the elements, and the use of genre are perfectly built into this story rather than feeling shoehorned in - which is difficult to do this well! The story is clean, well paced, funny, and engaging. I loved the main actor in this - they played the obsessive disgruntled character in a charming and humorous way.
I have to disagree with the comment about the settings; while houses/nice outdoor spots are commonly used in the competition it makes sense given that these are the types of settings most teams have access to. I don't think it's a flaw if they are used in a visually interesting way that makes sense for the story being told, which I felt this film definitely achieved.
Overall this was a really visually pleasing film with a strong story - Rabid Aunty Jean continue to set a very high bar on what can be achieved in just 48 hours!

My my my Rabid Aunty Jean, you really stepped it up again this year by going bigger in scope and absolutely nailing the shit out of your genre. All propelled by an absolutely fantastic obsessive compulsive lead performance by Shay Horay and bulletproof visuals and editing. Colour me impressed.

As a former voracious reader I'm well aware of quite simply not being able to put a good book down, so this was an all too relatable setup. The industry jokes were gold and I loved how something as seemingly innocent as a smiling planned watercooler shared experience over an ending turned things oh so bloody sour.

The lengths that you showed him going to. It was some Bruce Wayne next level shit right here with the intensity of DEXTER. I had a binocular shot in my film but yours was super frigging cool!

Your characters really felt like they had a life of their own. The apple a day giving the guy the stamina to just plot and scheme with no other cares in the world was one of the more memorable little quirks I've seen in this comp.

Sound design and audio bang on. This was a rich vibrant film that mixed sunlight and a darkened room so well to provide us literal and metaphorical cat and mouse connections throughout. Like I said earlier, genre absolutely nailed.

For mine was the ending fairly obvious immediately? Yes, but it still worked, and the journey made it all worthwhile. Fantastic, team.

What got my attention:
Well, everything really. Cinematography, editing, sound, voice-over, writing, acting, delivery, story, genre. Seamless perfection.

Take it or Leave it:
Ummm...how did the end walker know what book our mouse she was reading? Seemed to be on an angle where she couldn’t? It’s a stretch, I know.

Final thoughts:
Rapid Aunty Jean are the absolute consistently best team in CHCH and have been nailing it here and for a few years on sabbatical in Auckland too. When calls have gone out such as “Get a bigger team!” RAJ continue to have a small, tight group (six?) Proves that with the right skills and talent you don’t need to overcomplicate it. RAJ are the masters at it contained, effective film-making, and they make the film they want to make and seem to give zero fucks what others think. I hope this film wins CHCH. It should. It’s easily the best this year, way ahead of anything else and could stand alone outside of the 48 with no problem at all. Makes my top three films from this collab along with “Is Love Enough?” and the national winning “A Familiar Feeling”. In awe.

To Ian, Julian, and the whole RAJ team, I am so SO happy you won this year. I go back and I watch your 2024 film every couple of months. My review last year left me in pieces, I felt awful, I know it’s a me problem, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around what it was about this film that I didn’t understand. I kept going back to it, wanting to understand and feeling saddened that I could never write an updated review that said ‘hey! I understand now!’

But now, 2025 is here, and you’ve returned with a story that I absolutely, 100% understand hahahaha and I loved it. I really really loved it. Well, I loved a lot of it, there’s things I would have liked to see different versions of to figure out what might have been the best choice, we’ll get to those here soon.

Once again you’ve strolled into the competition and delivered a film that feels like it was made with a calm hand and complete confidence in your craft. This year, though, it’s not just another strong entry, it’s a straight-up masterclass. I’m happy to report that unlike pretty much every other film in the shortlist this year that was polarising for the judges, this was the film that had consistently confident feedback from every judge, and it’s unsurprising given we know what the judges were looking for - a strong use of genre, and a simple clear story with a character you could root for.

It’s one of the cleanest, most satisfying Cat and Mouse stories we’ve seen in the competition ever. The premise is instantly funny and relatable. You take that simple idea and build it into a beautifully absurd, deadpan escalation. The lead performance anchors everything with just the right mix of charm, menace, and obsessive focus. The apple motif is sooooo much fun: somehow both sinister and hilarious, a detail that makes the character linger in your memory long after the credits roll. I also want to shout out those binoculars, no reason in particular, binoculars!

Cinematography? Gorgeous. Editing? Tight and purposeful. Sound design? Punchy and alive, always in service of the story. You take simple Christchurch locations and, once again, transform them into something fresh and threatening.

Now - let’s not pretend it didn’t have some gripes here and there, depending on who you talked to. Judges did bring up questions about the choice of ending, for example. And I did ponder this myself. In my head I can see many different avenues and ways it could have gone, did you guys pick the strongest? Perhaps that’s up for the grand finalist judges to decide. Personally? I wonder how this might have looked if Shay did get his chance to spoil the ending, and then Emma just goes ‘Oh yeah, I know, I see it coming a mile away, still, good read’. And that’s that! I dunno, maybe that ends the chase and therefore the genre isn’t as strong.

The way she does get spoiled though, it was puzzling, was the booked really successful enough that other bookworms were picking it up? Was he making money off of his efforts!? That would have been an interesting thing to see now that I think about it, he becomes a world class author but doesn’t give a shit about that because all he wants to do is spoil the ending for this one woman? Oof, there’s something there I can feel it hahaha, but that’s the rip focus energy in me wanting to make a simple story too ambitious.

We could go on and on about particular moments and whether the right decision was made, heck if I had the energy to do this for every film I’d be writing 20 page reviews for the next 3 years before I was done. At the end of the day, it’s welcoming, it’s funny, it’s tense, it’s entertaining, and above all else, it’s confident.

THE BEST THING: The city winner needs no introduction! Congratulations. You didn’t just win Christchurch. You cemented your place, once again, as one of the most consistently excellent teams in Aotearoa. We look forward to seeing you in Wellington and hearing more about how the hell you pull this off year after year, we want to know!

THE NEXT THING: You guys wanna make a musical too?

We got to watch this for the first time on the grand finals stream last night, and I know you said it maybe wasn't a comedy, but we laughed the whole way through, it was so funny.

There's that saying that 'love will move mountains' but I've always thought actually it should be petty revenge haha. The things humans can achieve while driven by pettiness!

I just found the whole film super relatable. And I love that it ended with him writing #2 partly because it spoiled the end again, but also it drove home the extent of his feelings. It's so frustrating to have something spoiled! It's rude, and he deserves his revenge! And wild author success along the way!

Congrats on your win :) I can't wait for this to become available so I can make everyone I know watch it.

I saw this at the Grand Finals and was impressed.
To stand out at that level is tough, but this was classy in every aspect.
Strong story, well-acted, well-shot, and hit all the marks it set out to.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and want to congratulate the team behind it. Superb.