Francesca Rudkin: Obsession and Caterpillar

Obsession 

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic gets exactly what he asked for. However, he soon discovers that some desires come at a dark and sinister price. 

Caterpillar  

In an early-2000s Wellington household, three generations of women navigate love, ambition and change. Single mother Maxine struggles to fund her filmmaking dreams, and teenage daughter Cassie faces the pressures of growing up. All while grandmother Huia quietly confronts a dementia diagnosis, retreating into her fascination with monarch butterflies as her mind begins to falter. When the family’s needs clash, they must learn to adapt together.   

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at Me.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Francisca Rudkin is our film reviewer and she's with us
this morning. Killed her.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Let's we only got two films for us, both of
them are showing at the movies this week, not streaming
at home. Let's begin with one that I am almost
certain that is not for me. If you use this
much to you, this is obsession. And I know she does,
say Nikki, I think we should grab a drink sometime,

(00:39):
yelling at bone. I wish Nikky freaming loving more than
anyone entire world. That the dam that's obsession, and it
looks like it would make me a little bit anxious.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
It's really good. The budget was about a million backs.
It's by director a guy called Carrybacker. He was a TikToker,
did content, done a couple of short films, did quite
a long short film, almost affect film. But this is
probably his first feature. And what we often see is
the directors often use horror films as an opportunity to
get a feature out because they are you can come

(01:14):
up with quite a clear idea, and they're affordable, and
they can then go on and make a whole lot
of money. And I think that this is one that
might just through word of mouth, do really really well.
The premise is really simple. It's be careful what you
wish for. It's that old sort of the monkey's poor
kind of story. We've got these four young adults. They're
in their sort of their twenties, they're trying to work
out what to do with their lives. They all work
at this music store and what feels like a relatively

(01:37):
sort of small town. And we've got Bear played by
Michael Johnston, and he's got a crush on his coworker, Nicki,
played by Indie Anotheraretti, and she's kind of friend zoned him,
and one night they're about to meet up and she
comments she's lost her necklace, so he stops at this
shop to buy her a new crystal necklace. And he's
a bit distracted by this kind of novelty gift and

(01:58):
it's a one wish Willow, and it's basically this little
bit of the sort of stick and you break it
and you make a wish and auto dreams come true.
The Knight doesn't quite go according to Plant because Bears
decided this is a night he's going to admit to
Nikki that he has some feelings for her. It doesn't
go according to plans, and then he in a bit
of a sort of a promptuy mood, he breaks the

(02:21):
stick himself, this gift he was going to give her,
and he basically wishes that Nicky loves him more than
any other person in the world. And of course this
wish comes true, and you know, Nicki becomes very possessive
and completely attached, and poor Albert is realizing, gosh, there

(02:42):
really is a bit of a consequence to this wish.
It's really interesting, it's very funny. It's clear, I mean
in a way, it's a horror slash dark comedy slash
rom com in a way. So it's really funny. It's
got some very clever lines. It's very chilling though, because
you know, these characters are stuck in a nightmare. And
that's what's really clever here is that Nicky knows that

(03:04):
she is under juress. Here there are moments when the
real Nicki comes out, so Ben knows what he is
doing to her to drive her and sang like this.
It turns quite violent, quite bloody, quite gross. And as
I said, it's not a new premise, but it feels
really fresh.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Hair.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
When I walked into the cinema to watch this film,
they gave me a one wesh willow like they gave
me the appears like a little gimmick, a little prop
and they gave it to me, and I was like, Oh,
what's this? Is this chocolate? That's all? No, but a
little become clear when I got home. I'm actually really
embarrassed to say this. When I got home, I came
straight inside and I went to my wardrobe and I

(03:43):
hid it at the back of the wardrobe so that
if I bought it upstairs and someone here saw it
and went, oh, hilarious, this is the one wish thing
oh and snapped it, that wish might come true. That's
how disturbed I was by this film. Now, obviously I
went for the next one. I woke up, I went,
you're an idiot, you know, A good sleep and some

(04:04):
sanity had come back to me. But that's how clever
they've been with this film. I was really kind of
unnerved and disturbed and entertained and quite delighted by this number.
So if you love the Horrors, let's just be at
the top of your list at the moment.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
It's pretty good, very good. Okay, So that is obsession
not showing in cinemas at the moment. Next up, let's
listen to a new Kiwi film. This is Caterpillar A.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
You're right, we did ask that you bring a family member.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
To the meeting today.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Have you spoken to your daughter? It's pretty clear it's
digression rapidly. How long? Okay? This is directed by Chelsea
Preston Crayford. Tell us about Caterpillar.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Okay. This is an absolutely fantastic debut. Chelsea Preston Crayford
as an actress who's appeared in all sorts of bits
and pieces, very well known to us, the daughter of
Dame Gailing Preston, the filmmaker, documentary maker, and I think
that she has just put together a very richly observed
film about mothers. And it's across three generations. It is

(05:09):
filled with life difficulties. It's filled with a teenager dealing
with the teenage years and finding yourself, a middle aged
woman dealing with the struggle of being an independent filmmaker
and a working mother. And then we have an older person,
a grandmother dealing facing a dimentia diagnosis. And look, as
you heard from the trailer there, it sounds like it's
going to be very heavy and very sad. But this

(05:31):
is what Chelsea has done which is so brilliant, is
she's taken all this honesty and emotion and occasionally quite
brutal words, but she's presented us to us with this
gentle lightness and humor and plenty of warmth. You will
laugh your way through this film before you cry. I promise.
It's her observations of teenage life. And this is a
really other, really cool thing about is you relate up

(05:52):
and down. So you know, as a mother of a daughter,
I actually related to cass who's the teenager. I was
set in early two thousands, and I can remember being
a teenager. I totally related to her experience. I'm the
mother of a teenager. I relate to the mother who's
juggling work and you know, and motherhood and things like that.
And then of course we're all dealing with, you know,

(06:13):
in the Sandwich generation, what's happening with our older generation
and what they're going through. So it's a film you
very much relates sort of up and down through these
characters and it's very hard to do a multi protagonist film.
Normally you would focus on one character, and here she
spreads the love out love and a lot of care
in the film over all three characters, and it really
is absolutely delightful. I cannot wait to see what she

(06:36):
does next. I think her attention to detail on this film,
from just the props in the art direction, to the
to the language and things, it's it's absolutely fabulous. Yeah,
I was really impressed with this.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
I'm really excited to see it because she's she's lots
of really interesting little things.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, yeah, yes, And look, her cast is amazing. A
nation is this plays the young cast. She is a
talent on the rise. Go and see this because she
she's going to be everywhere very soon. She's amazing. Lisa
Harrow is in it now. Lisa Harrow is one of
our most successful acting exports. She's been on every stage
with every big actor in the world, and she comes
back and she's playing this beautiful part. And Marta Dusseldorpe

(07:17):
is just hilarious as Maxine. The mom are related and
so yeah, there's a lot to relate to. I don't
think that this is purely skewed towards women, but I
would say, hey, grab your mum, you grab your daughter,
grab your girlfriends, and go and watch it. You will
have a really great laugh to cry. But that's not
to say that there's not a lot in here that
men won't enjoy and relate to as well.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, that sounds really special. I'm excited to see that. Okay,
that's Caterpillar that is showing in cinemas at the moment.
Obsession is also at the movies and all the details
for those films will be up at NEWSTALKDEDB dot co
dot NZED.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to news Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.