0/5

Nude Tuesday

Stan's bonkers new movie spoken entirely in gibberish comes with different subtitles depending on which version you watch.

Now repeat after me….

“Tula” means thank you, “heya” means hello and “peta” means sorry.

Thankfully “Ok” and “ya,” are still readily identifiable in the bonkers new feature film Nude Tuesday.

This entire New Zealand indie film is in gibberish.

All of the cast, principals, supporting, extras and even kids, are speaking the entire comedy in a nonsensical, fictional language.

But here’s the twist. The subtitles are written by different comedians, depending on which version you watch: Celia Pacquola (Rosehaven) & Ronny Chieng (Ronny Chieng: International Student), or the UK’s Julia Davis (Nighty Night). And the plans may not stop there, with talk of other versions sset to be released. It’s a daringly creative concept and the rewards are plenty if you go along for the ride.

The story centres around Bruno (Damon Herriman) and Laura (Jackie van Beek) a middle-aged couple struggling with their marriage who are sent to a remote couples’ retreat to relight a spark. They meet an existentialist guru Bjorg Rassmussen (Jemaine Clement) who takes them on a cockamamie ride of free love, tribal ritual, emotional animals and polyamorous intimacy. Nine Perfect Strangers was never like this.

Bruno and Laura are a little out of their depth, or generation, but roll with the flow…

Needless to say not all goes as planned.

The commitment by the cast to this wildly original concept is undeniable. How they all improvised their dialogue with such gusto is pretty amazing -even the signs are in jibberish, resembling something downright Nordic.

Damon Herriman, again showing his underrated versatility, is hilarious as the long-suffering Bruno, while Jackie van Beek (who co-wrote with director Armagan Ballantyne) gives a liberating performance as Laura. Jemaine Clement is a hoot as the guru vainly inspiring his clan with hints of a Wizard of Oz act…

As if the courage was not enough, yes the cast get full frontal by the end of the film. Some things you can’t unsee!

The two subtitle scripts both follow the same fundamentals of the action -it’s not as if the stories veer off into wildly different directions. Both are very funny, but Julia Davis’ is definitely ruder, with a high quota of genital and sexual punchlines.

So unique is this concept that the execution becomes just as entertaining as the content.

Sit back and laugh, and read, this Kiwi kookiness. And then watch it again with new jokes. Bonus.

Nude Tuesday screens Thursday on Stan.

3 Responses

  1. I watched Cecilia and Ronny’s version last night and found the comedy to flow quite sweetly and naturally. I was regularly wondering how different an alternate version would be because it all made sense in a very quirky way but I’ll probably get round to it soon just to see. But it was very well done!

Leave a Reply