Ruby Smith - A National Treasure

A former acting star who rode the coat tails of one catchphrase early in her career all the way to Hollywood returns to Raumati South for an interview to give back to her roots. The banana republic/fatigue/split joke was on point but a lot of the film was a sit-down interview that repeated information in different ways. I'm giving this one positive marks because of good camera work and your male interviewer was simply superb.

This was a very polished film with extremely brilliant acting and an amazingly put together film. It felt like an actual documentary - great voice from the main interviewer (possible best performer nod coming I suspect) and the cinematography was superb. I literally found myself relaxing into watching this, like a real doco. The only aspect that took something away from it was the slightly drawn out dialogue in the middle. A few less words and explanations from the leading lady and I think this would have jumped another level! And that ending?! Dayum... ! Out of nowhere. Definitely a finalist?! I think so... unless the other heats are as good as this one was.

Ruby Smith returns to her hometown of Raumati South as her acting career has taken a dive and she is now only remembered for a single catch phrase. In an attempt to revive her career, Ruby is interviewed about her childhood, her homelands, and her infamous catch phrase. A stellar performance from the two leads in this film, they were both nominated as best performer in the Wellington finals. The interviewer seemed to model himself of John Campbell, I was gunning for him to have excellent pronunciation of Te Reo Maori too! I agree with a previous reviewer, that there was some drawn out dialogue that took me out of the moment. But overall it felt like I was watching a TVNZ news/entertainment piece with high production values and it was very entertaining. Wellington Finalist too, that's huge!