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FILM

Jemaine Clement stars withAundrea and Gia Gadsby in PeoplePlaces Things; Clement (left) withFlight of the Conchords partnerBret McKenzie.

Conchordtakes flightJemaine Clement tackles new emotional territory in his firstdramatic role, writes ALEXANDER BISLEY.

J emaine Clement is contemplating themuffin cabinet at a noisy Wellingtoncafe. His Flight of the Conchords co-star Bret McKenzie once worked here

as a dishwasher, doing a better job than he did atthe flat they shared nearby. Clement would buskoutside. They were broke, so sometimesMcKenzie would bring home leftovers.

‘‘We would’ve died if it weren’t for unsold cafemuffins,’’ Clement says. ‘‘You’d have the savourymuffin first, which I hated. Often the ones thatdidn’t sell were the weirder flavours – peanutbutter and grated carrot or something. Theywould be disgusting and soggy. And then you’dhave the nice sweet muffin for dessert.’’

Clement is entertaining and thoughtfulcompany, willing to talk about the personalexperiences of family, gender and race thatinform his new film, People Places Things. He playsWill Henry, a Kiwi graphic novelist and academicliving in New York, struggling with a marriagebreak-up and caring for his six-year-old twins.‘‘The director of the film is a solo dad with twokids,’’ he says. ‘‘So it’s much closer to him than tome. But I can relate to it, definitely.’’

The poignant, funny film is unusually dramaticterritory for Clement, who played an endearinglyhapless version of himself in the Conchords’television comedy series and a vampire living in aheroically untidy flat in the 2014 film, What We Doin the Shadows. He thinks comedy is tougher thandrama for an actor. ‘‘I’m paraphrasing WoodyAllen himself,’’ he says. ‘‘He said something like,‘Comedy’s obviously much harder and is muchless rewarding’.’’

Though it charts some emotional territory,People Places Things has plenty of comicmoments. Lines improvised on set made theirway into the finished film – a familiar process forClement, thanks to his years collaborating withMcKenzie and others.

The film could be a pivotal moment in hiscareer. Variety’s Ben Kenigsberg said it made thecase for Clement ‘‘as a serious leading man’’.

Is that what he wants? In the past he hasexpressed uncertainty about dedicating himselfto acting. Then there are the demands faced by aleading man; in People Places Things he appears inalmost every scene. In some ways, that was ablessing, he says. ‘‘In other things where I’ve had

smaller parts, I’m just in my hotel room, gettingready for the scene and I’ll over-stress about it.’’

Leading man or not, his face is alreadyrecognised around the world. The scrutiny thatcomes with celebrity is not always welcome. ‘‘Inmedia, people make up their stories and they’llalso . . . try and push you to breaking point,’’ hesays. ‘‘I’m a peaceful guy, but I’ve wanted topunch paparazzi. They want you to. They will tryand make you.’’

He is conscious of the impact his career mayhave on his family, his wife, Greek-Kiwi actressand playwright Miranda Manasiadis, and six-year-old son Sophocles. They divide their timebetween North America, Athens and Wellington.‘‘I want him to empathise with others,’’ Clementsays of his son. ‘‘We’ve got a good, big house [inWellington, but] when we go to other places, weoften stay in little apartments. The place inGreece is a little apartment in a poor area .. . Itnot only lets you appreciate what you have, butalso understand other people.’’

Clement grew up in provincial New Zealand,raised by his Maori mother and grandmother,some of the time on social welfare. ‘‘It’s hardwork. There was not much money .. . We justdidn’t have things. We didn’t have a heater whenI was kid. We had an oven.’’

He is critical of New Zealand Prime MinisterJohn Key and his government for policy changesthat tightened conditions around welfarebenefits. ‘‘John Key – wasn’t he brought up by asolo mum? .. . He knows it wasn’t easy. What asellout.’’

In the context of his upbringing, he says hefound it galling when some criticised his lastfilm, What We Do in the Shadows, for anapparent lack of racial diversity. Clement isa direct descendant of Maori chief Iraia TeWhaiti, and also has French, Irish, Germanand Australian heritage. ‘‘None of us arewhite,’’ he says, referring to co-stars TaikaWaititi and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer. ‘‘We’vegot white make-up on – we’re vampires.

‘‘I’m part white, but I’m not just white. And Idon’t think of myself as white, because I wasn’tbrought up that way.

‘‘When they say ‘white guys’ when they’retalking about me and Taika, they’re imagining acompletely different life, completely different

things. They’re imagining this privilege that wedidn’t have.’’

To Clement’s bemusement, People Places Thingshas drawn some attention in the US for its‘‘interracial’’ romance between his character anda literature professor played by Regina Hall. ‘‘As amixed race person, I see race as largely bullshit,’’he says. ‘‘Anything I do is interracial! One greatthing about New Zealand is ‘interracial’ doesn’tmean anything. We’re used to it.’’

That is not to say he is indifferent about socialissues – far from it. When we meet, he has beenthinking about the slew of female-drivencomedies in recent times, and what they mean forHollywood. ‘‘If you look at the biggest comedymovies this year, they were Spy [starring MelissaMcCarthy] and Trainwreck [starring AmySchumer],’’ he says. ‘‘But sexism is definitelyrife in Hollywood and, as a comedian and writer,I’m starting to feel the responsibility to make

female roles, to putthem in further, to do

more with female roles.I wish .. . there were more

female producers andwriters.’’

He has been working with one ofthe biggest female names in the

business in the new television comedyseries, Divorce. Sarah-Jessica Parker is theshow’s executive producer and star, playing amiddle-aged woman whose marriage fallsapart after her husband discovers she ishaving an affair. Clement plays a friend ofParker’s character. The pilot, he says, involved‘‘one of the most awkward sex scenes I’ve ever

been involved in’’.‘‘Usually they’re awkward on purpose, but this

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The Sydney Morning Herald AUGUST 29-30, 2015 spectrum 13

Brothers break free

THE WOLFPACKRated M, 89 minutes

★★★★★★★★★

REVIEW OF THE WEEK

“It’s far from a horrormovie, more of acelebration.„

BY PAUL BYRNES

T he Wolfpack walks a perilous linein documentary ethics, but there’sno question it is one of the most

confronting and confounding truestories in a long time – which is why itwon the grand jury prize at the 2015Sundance Film Festival. It is not alwayseasy to reserve judgment when we see aman mistreat his family; harder stillwhen it comes from what might be calledgood intentions.

Director Crystal Moselle was about30 when she saw six unusual boys, agedbetween 11 and 18, walking along FirstAvenue in New York in April 2010. Theywere dressed in identical black suits,white shirts, ties and shades, like thecast of Reservoir Dogs, but each hadlong black hair. She ran after them toask who they were, and why they weredressed that way.

The answer is complicated butriveting as documentary. Anestablishing shot shows a Manhattanhousing project on the lower east side.Sixteen floors up, the boys are re-enacting Reservoir Dogs in theirapartment, with fake guns made fromcardboard and tape. Their lines areword-perfect, because one of themtranscribes them on an old electrictypewriter. They pick films they love,with enough parts for six brothers andone sister, who’s described as ‘‘special’’.They have about 5000 films in theircollection. ‘‘If I did not have movies, lifewould be pretty boring and there wouldnot be any point in going on,’’ says one ofthe brothers.

We get no name titles, and thebrothers are physically alike, so it is hardto sort them out. Each is named for anIndian god, because their father Oscar, aPeruvian, was a Hare Krishna. For therecord, their names are Bhagavan (theeldest), Govinda and Narayana (twins),Mukunda, Jagadisa and Krsna. Thesister is Visnu. Their mother, a mid-western American, is Susanne.

It takes a while to realise that theyhave grown up behind a locked door inthis apartment. Oscar wanted to protectthem from all the drug dealers andviolence of the city, so he kept the only

keys. Sometimes they were taken out afew times a year; some years, not at all.

The movies he brought home becametheir only window on the world. Oscarworked when they were young, then gaveit up. Susanne gets a payment for home-schooling the children. Oscar appearslater in the film, sometimes drunk. Oneof the boys says he used to slap theirmother and there are hints of somethingdarker, never clarified.

The questions of consent in a filmlike this are many. Some of the boyswere barely teenagers when Mosellestarted to film, too young to giveconsent. The sister is mentallyhandicapped, so incapable of consent.The father might be mentally ill –another problem of consent.

I don’t know how Moselle dealt withthese issues, but it is obvious that thefilm is sensitively crafted, to shieldcertain characters and events. Thesister is barely featured. The father

eventually speaks for himself, althoughhe is possibly delusional. Moselle keepsthe interviews focused on the older boys,who seem capable of informed choices.

The question then becomes how muchher presence changes what we see. Inone scene, Susanne phones her 88-year-old mother, whom she has not spokento in many years. I wondered whosupplied the mobile phone. In somedocumentary circles, giving her thatphone would be forbidden.

Moselle captures many greatmoments, but the most astonishingthing is that none of them comes acrossas a victim. She met the family after oneof the boys, at 15, challenged his father’sauthority and left the apartment for awalk in the neighbourhood. The otherssoon followed, which is why she sawthem all on the street in 2010.

They were already changing theirlives and filming it themselves, becauseof their obsession with movies.

She filmed many firsts – their firsttime on a train, first trip to the beach,first movie in an actual theatre. Theirgrowth, from movie nerds to young menin the world, is very moving.

It’s far from a horror movie, more of acelebration, although psychologists willhave a field day.

The Wolfpack opens on September 3.

one just happened to be unintentionallyawkward,’’ he says.

There are more high-profile collaborations tocome. Clement confirms that Trainwreckproducer Judd Apatow will produce the HBOtelevision series he is writing with Waititi. Theas-yet-unnamed series will feature episodes ‘‘likemini movies’’ with different storylines andcharacters, but the same cast. Apatow is givingfeedback on their work. ‘‘Usually we know what’swrong with the script, but we hand it in anywayand then he’ll tell us,’’ he says. ‘‘He actuallypushes the comedy further – makes your ideasgood. It’s good exercise.’’

Despite all the work on the horizon, Clementhas not abandoned the Conchords. After years ofspeculation and anticipation, he, McKenzie andlongtime collaborator James Bobin have startedwriting a Conchords movie. They have scheduleda tour for next year (the last one was cancelledwhen Clement landed a role in Steven Spielberg’sadaptation of the classic Roald Dahl book, TheBFG). He hopes Australia will be part of theitinerary. His father grew up in Adelaide and,despite the occasional dig in the TV series, hesays he appreciates the Australian sense ofhumour.

In some ways, not much has changed forClement as he makes the transition from funnyguy to leading man. He has long been willing toexperiment across a range of creative fields:music, acting, live performance, writing, evenvoice-over work.

And there are always the jokes. ‘‘If Peoplewasn’t funny, I may not have done it,’’ he says. ‘‘Itmay have intimidated me.’’

People Places Things opens on September 10.