meaninglessbark Despite reviews referring to 50 Ways as "charming" the movie is hardly a pleasant coming of age film. If you're looking for something sunny and lighthearted to watch look elsewhere. Though 50 Ways is quite sunny in its setting, New Zealand during a drought, there is a mean tone throughout the film as the cruelty of children and families is accurately portrayed over and over and over again. (So much so that when the films main bully, a standard stock character adolescent bastard, plunges over a bridge to the rocks below it feels like a bright spot in the film.)The scenery is nice, the acting is good. The music is horrible and plentiful, meandering flute tunes that seem as if they're meant to hammer home the notion of how charming it all is.50 Ways is pretty boring, nothing much happens except children being mean to anyone different than them and some moments of melodrama which seem thrown in just to make the film more exciting. There are also some fantasy sequences which are so irregular in their appearance that they seem as if they somehow bled over from an entirely different film.

miss_modular The opening night film of the 2006 Melbourne Queer Film Festival, this is an overlong, aimless and rambling piece of fluff.THANKFULLY the original novel's touchy theme of emerging adolescent sexuality was tastefully handled. Larry Clark, TAKE NOTE.If you're a fan of the original novel, don't bother. While the characters and major plot points remain the same, the parts in between these make no sense or have had their context COMPLETELY changed.The young lead actors, while charming, seemed confused and crippled by the badly paced and downright bi-polar script.If I hear "fubbulous" and that g-damned muzak played again, my head shall explode Cronenberg-style.CONCLUSION: Love the book, movie BITES ARSE. Two star rating: one for the film getting made, the other for the young actors giving it their best. Expected so much more from the writer/director of the ABSOLUTELY SPANKING (read: fantastic) melodrama "Desperate Remedies" (1995) Sorry Mr. Main.

jsb-20 Not as true to the book as it could have been. Some of the more feminine moments in the book ended up on the cutting room floor. However congratulations to the young male actors for very brave performances. The golden colours appear too contrived at times and this was unnecessary because the landscape is awe inspiring anyway.At screenings in Wanaka this last week I am told the audience is clapping at the conclusion of each screening. Well done to all involved particularly given the budget the film enjoyed.This is another example of a New Zealand film that takes a universal theme (the complexities and confusions of adolescence and early sexual awareness)and puts it into a very traditional rural context and reminds us of the normality of it all.

michele-118 What an enjoyable watch with a real sense of rural New Zealand in the 70's. There were some wonderful performances from the children & the audience embraced the gentle humour & story, especially it seemed, an older generation. It connected with an audience who either knew these characters or anyone who had grappled with the complications, the lows, the trivia & the joys of growing up. The landscape of Central Otago looked stunning & was transformed into an amazing moonscape in the day-for-night scenes - loved that moody twilight world.The 'look' actually reminded me a lot of the genius & madness of Canadian Director Guy Madden's films. The 'zany' quality w/ camera zooms, fantasy sequences & OTT music worked fabulously together, but it's a rare beast that also has a sensitive, good looking and well told story - all bundled into one fab package. Well done I say!!