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4

well. he wore wigs…. so…….

5

Score : 8.5/10 ✅

Seen at Fantasia International Film Festival 2024

Bookworm is self-assured of one thing – which is to guarantee its audience a good time. Largely adventurous and clumsily sensitive, this father-daughter bonding generates tons of laughter and lovely moments.

The combined effort of Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher is light-hearted. It earns its charm as soon as these two actors are placed together in the same space, and from there, the movie plays with this idea that the daughter acts like an adult (with confidence) and the father acts like an insecure child (with some innocence). The reversal role fits well because Elijah Wood can make his character look naïve every time a new issue presents itself.…

14

FANTASIA #1

*World Premiere*
As I sit less than ten feet from Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher and Ant Timpson

This film is a charming little daddy-daughter mumblecore and buddy bonding comedy for a select indie film demographic, albeit already mismarketed as a more magical action-adventure for all ages and a much wider audience. In fact, the viewership that will most appreciate this is one which enjoys character arc and journey pieces such as COWBOYS (2020) or LIGHT OF MY LIFE (2019) with similar dynamics and set-ups.

To each their own, and not to meddle in Timpson’s craft, but I wish I had been in the test audience for this rather than sitting in the front row at the world premiere.…

Review by cob ★★★½ Liked

perhaps one of the greatest elijah wood character introductions

Review by claira curtis ★★★½ Liked

Strikes a surprisingly similar tone to something like the A Series of Unfortunate Events books/movie/show. A world where the smartest person is the room is the kid, adults are either well-intentioned, but flawed, or downright nasty brutes, and danger is as plentiful as the mushy emotional stuff. Bookworm is such goodhearted fun and the type of film that hits just the right notes of whimsy and genuineness.

Can so clearly imagine a younger version of myself and my sisters curled up on the couch for family movie night just eating this up.

Review by m ★★★★ Liked

the way i smiled when she called him dad 🥹🥹

Review by Gemma G ★★★★ Liked

Ant Timpson performed a magic trick on my kid that kept him in his seat the whole runtime and made him rate this “ten out of five” and also “googolplex out of five”. 

Second time around, the details really grew on me: that glorious aspect ratio change; the voices in Strawn’s head as he recounts traumatic magician bullying; his portentous rant about soap operas and cliffhangers; Mildred’s pet hates about America coming home to roost… just lovely lovely Easter eggs and the right amount of tension and release.

Review by Josh Ruben ★★★½ Liked

As dually sweet as it is unafraid to explore dark themes and go to dark places. Felt like the kind of kids movie they don’t make anymore - smart writing for kids and adults, putting kids in real danger, full of heartwarming wonder. I love Ant Timpson as a filmmaker and a human!!

Review by katelaidler ★★★½

Elijah wore wigs and hiked nz nature again

Review by moviemattk ✌🏻 ★★★ Liked

Bookworm is a charming little family adventure movie! Set in the beautiful New Zealand wilderness and starring Elijah Wood as the lovable yet inexperienced dad trying to figure it out as he goes, this film was cozy watch on a Sunday morning. 

Also got to meet Elijah Wood and get a picture with him! 

(Fantastic Fest Day Four)

Review by joshrowley ★★★

Amusing; beautiful; charming; colorful; fantastical; scenic; slow; talky; uneven.

2

Jesus christ. Not a finished movie. Basically unsalvageable but maybe you could trim 20 minutes off it and get an actual childrens writer to punch up the jokes and get an editor that knows what they’re doing and it would be at least able. This is such a lame and terrible representation of NZ cinema, but kind of appropriate for the approach our film commission is taking in the year of our lord 2024. Small wonder it did not make it into nziff. Fails the litmus test of “would i show this to my own child even just to kill an hour and forty minutes” miserably. They would be bored as fuck. This might read really harsh, and thats fair, but im optimistic about the movies we can make for ourselves here and just want them to be so much better than this is. Its just disappointing to watch something so unformed and yet so close to being decent.