John Barker, son of the legendary Clive Barker, yes the Bafana Bafana coach, made a mockumentary in early 2000 called Blue Cheese about a terrible rock group that thought it was destined for stardom.
It’s fitting that his second mockumentary should deal with another man with dreams of grandeur, coming out right in the middle of the silly season also known as election time in SA. Let’s dig in.
Wonder Boy for President stars the ever hardworking Kagiso Lediga (writer, producer, director, stand up comedian, you name it) as the lead character in this “fake documentary” about a ploy by the ANCYL to groom someone who knows nothing about politics from the rural Eastern cape area to become president, sounds familiar ….
Lediga was born for this, he can handle the dead pan jokes, the improvised dialogue and his Xhosa lingo aint bad. He is supported excellently by Ntosh Madlingozi and Tony Miyambo very well as the not-so-nefarious Brutus and Shakes.
Thishiwe Ziqubu gets to exercise her comedic bone on the big screen and she is not bad at all, as the frenemy. Then there's the "spot the standard up comedian" cameos - it's always great to see the fraternity supporting each other this way.
Wonder Boy could actually just have been a long line of gags after gags but there’s some thought and story behind it. John Barker and his team smartly insert Lediga in actual events such as Mangaung, re-cut news items with politicians and they get some politicians like Maimane and Vavi to play along where we get a slow story of disillusionment with SA politics.
This is John Stewart’s Daily Show level humour here. We have left planet Schuster - it helps a little if you been paying attention to what's been happening in our political zoo. The jokes are funny but the satire also has a little bit of bite when referencing our political culture, how our media works and the results of idealism in SA.
I wonder if your average South African will go out and see this film that speaks more to our political context than anything running on TV and in cinemas at the moment. John Barker and crew have to be commended for this and the timing is so perfect with the local government elections.
Moreover it would be great to watch it surrounded by the guys at Luthuli House or the red berets or even the blue smurfs to see their varied reactions to how they're lampooned, at times too close to home.
For a laugh out loud movie that will give you time to pause and think at times, go check out Wonder Boy for President. It might be a tad bit long but the smarts and humour make up for the length.
Rating ***1/2
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* utter rubbish ** meh ***it’s aight ****we cooking with gas *****buy the blue ray/dvd/it’s a keeper