Taika Waiтιтi has provided us with some of the funniest and most entertaining movies of the past decade, and the best of his movies deliver his unique sense of humor and quirky style, regardless of genre. The New Zealand filmmaker’s innate ability to balance comedy and tragedy has helped him build a huge fanbase over the years, making his movies stand out from the crowd with their amusing handling of often serious themes. Waiтιтi’s upcoming movies will look to do the same.

Waiтιтi has found success over the years with not only his crowd-pleasing Marvel Cinematic Universe movies but his dramedies too, as he won his first Academy Award for Jojo Rabbit. This propelled Waiтιтi to a whole new level of fame, and it felt like it might never slow down. Still, not all of his movies are spectacular, and Waiтιтi’s most recent movies have lowered his status as one of Hollywood’s top talents a bit. Even so, Taika Waiтιтi is still an incredible director, and his filmography proves just that.

8

Next Goal Wins (2023)

Next Goal Wins revolves around the American Samoa football team, who hire a down-on-his-luck coach to help them prepare for the World Cup Qualifiers following their most recent FIFA loss. Unfortunately for Taika Waiтιтi, his most recent directorial movie effort also happens to be his weakest film, and a lot of what doesn’t work in Next Goal Wins is typically what he excels at as a writer and director. In fact, it is the quirky humor that feels mostly played out in Waiтιтi’s filmography, which is a shame.

Still, there are some things that work quite well in Next Goal Wins, as Waiтιтi is still an incredibly talented filmmaker. The cast is mostly great, and Michael Fᴀssbender as the coach, Thomas Rongen, is the main standout in the film. It also feels like Waiтιтi’s heart was in the right place with this film, despite it retreading a lot of what he has already done in his career. Following the disappointing Thor: Love and Thunder, it feels like some of Taika Waiтιтi’s magic is starting to wear off.

7

Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)

As the director’s feature-length debut, it’s no surprise that Waiтιтi’s style in Eagle vs. Shark wasn’t quite as captivating as his future films. The foundations are clear, but the script just isn’t as sharp or as witty as audiences would come to expect from Waiтιтi’s movies. The film follows a socially awkward waitress named Lily, who begins an unconventional relationship with a video game clerk named Jarrod before their connection quickly takes a nosedive. It’s filled with great jokes and charming performances.

Most of Waiтιтi’s movies have a certain widespread appeal that just isn’t found in Eagle vs. Shark. It’s made with a very specific audience in mind, and it’s probably not as relatable to most people as it aims to be. The film is a pᴀssable screwball comedy, but when compared with the rest of Waiтιтi’s filmography, which generally has mᴀss appeal, Eagle vs. Shark doesn’t come close.

6

Thor: Love And Thunder (2022)

Waiтιтi’s involvement with the Thor franchise was the moment that he really made his transition into mainstream cinema, but his second installment was seen as a disappointment that many audiences considered among the MCU’s worst movies. Thor: Love and Thunder lacked some of the sharp storytelling of his previous attempts, bringing Thor and Jane Foster together but not delivering on the villain potential that Gorr the God Butcher has. Waiтιтi’s fixation on humor and visual gags caused much of the film’s emotional weight to miss.

While Waiтιтi’s comedy helped rejuvenate the franchise and turn Thor into one of the most popular characters in the Avengers, his second effort with the superhero went way too far in that direction and opted for a solely comedic adventure that didn’t earn many of its laughs. Thor: Love and Thunder admittedly did a good job of developing Thor and Jane’s relationship, but it would’ve been much more affecting if the drama hadn’t been undermined with jokes in every scene.

5

Boy (2010)

Boy remains one of Taika Waiтιтi’s best-written movies to date. It was the filmmaker’s first full-length film after Eagle vs. Shark, and every single aspect of the screenwriting was improved. Chronicling one boy’s attempts to build a relationship with his absent father, Boy has all the quirky humor and mature storytelling that makes the director’s filmography so reliable, but balances the border between comedy and drama in a way that very few writers are able to accomplish.

Just as Waiтιтi’s series Reservation Dogs is based on the true story of his childhood in New Zealand, Boy draws some of this real-world authenticity into its story too. Boy is a real pᴀssion project that aims to educate audiences about Indigenous culture while providing a narrative that everybody can understand. It might not be as flashy or as big-budget as the director’s later works, but it’s a touching insight into Waiтιтi’s childhood and upbringing nonetheless, and a poignant look at New Zealand that isn’t seen as much as it should be in the film industry.

4

Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016)

Hunt for the Wilderpeople was Waiтιтi’s first attempt at making a movie on a larger budget than he was used to, but that never prevented him from adhering to his indie roots and forging something quiet and intimate in nature. Not only is Hunt for the Wilderpeople among the best movies of Waiтιтi’s career, but it was also a huge platform for Julian Dennison to give his star-making lead performance. Alongside Sam Neill as his father, Dennison plays a young boy on his adventures through the New Zealand wilderness after becoming the subject of a police investigation.

What makes Hunt for the Wilderpeople work so well is Waiтιтi’s ability to create complex characters that find themselves in emotionally devastating circumstances while also utilizing his signature humor to great effect. It was the next big step for Waiтιтi after his incredibly low-budget offerings, and proved that he truly had what it took to become one of Hollywood’s most exciting directors.

3

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Taika Waiтιтi came out swinging with Thor: Ragnarok, which immediately cemented itself as one of the greatest movies in the MCU, not only because of its highly entertaining storyline but also because of Waiтιтi’s razor-sharp screenplay and hilarious character work. Waiтιтi permanently changed the way that Thor’s character is perceived in the MCU, writing him with much more humanity and vulnerability than he previously had been, and his return in Avengers: Infinity War was made that much better due to Waiтιтi’s influence on the character.

There’s no doubt that Waiтιтi’s involvement is what made Thor: Ragnarok such a booming success. He understood the characters for who they are as individuals, rather than who they could be as superheroes — and this made every single interaction more believable and entertaining. Thor had been fundamentally changed as a character, but Waiтιтi ensured that this transformation never felt forced or rushed. Thor: Ragnarok actually feels like a comic book at times, with its bizarre narrative and bold visual palette blending together to create an experience unlike any other in the genre.

2

What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

Taika Waiтιтi genuinely changed the mockumentary game with What We Do in the Shadows, making it one of his most important movies. The filmmaker knows exactly how to position the camera and direct his actors to make every single scene as hilarious as possible, with each joke landing perfectly. There aren’t many comedies out there whose scripts are as unrelentingly funny as What We Do In The Shadows, and the various characters with their diverse personalities work so well off of each other.

Waiтιтi’s film is an unconventional vampire movie that takes all the tropes of the genre and subverts them, which makes for plenty of unexpected laughs. The movie follows a group of vampires living as flatmates in Wellington who have a documentary crew following their daily lives. What We Do in the Shadows rapidly became a cult classic within the genre. Taika Waiтιтi is able to draw from a lot of vampire lore to create something wholly unique that utilizes his signature style.

1

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Although Taika Waiтιтi’s filmography is filled with hilarious comedies and poignant dramas, it wasn’t until Jojo Rabbit that the director finally got the recognition he deserved. While the film has grown famous for one specific scene that changes Jojo Rabbit’s tone entirely, the whole movie is a beautiful meditation on life, freedom, and the power of friendship. It chronicles the difficult life of young Jojo, a lonely German boy who finds a Jewish girl hiding from Nazi forces in his attic, forcing him into a moral conflict between his duty to the country and his compᴀssion for his new friend.

Jojo Rabbit was the project that finally saw his writing recognized at the Academy Awards, as he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film’s blend of comedy and tragedy is a perfect example of Waiтιтi’s powerful writing, as he navigates an incredibly sensitive topic with the perfect combination of respect and lightheartedness, which allows his story to soar high above other Taika Waiтιтi movies. His portrayal as Adolf Hitler is one of the film’s silliest, but ultimately bleakest, aspects.

Taika Waiтιтi

Birthdate

August 16, 1975

Birthplace

Wellington, New Zealand

Notable Projects

Thor: Ragnarok, The Mandalorian, Jojo Rabbit