The Justice of Bunny King

The Justice of Bunny King, 2021, 4 stars

The dog days of Bunny

Exclusive to MeierMovies, April 3, 2022

Bunny King and Sonny Wortzik are both fundamentally moral people longing for normal lives with their loved ones. But in a world that has chewed them up and spat them out, they’ve gone crazy.

Though the characters’ predicaments are different, the comparison between The Justice of Bunny King (the debut feature from New Zealand’s Gaysorn Thavat) and Sidney Lumet’s 1975 masterpiece Dog Day Afternoon are unavoidable. Justice never approaches Dog’s quality, but the fact that the films are in the same conversation speaks volumes about Thavat’s movie, which contains one of the best performances of last year (this is officially a 2021 release), by Essie Davis (The Babadook), plus memorable support by Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit, Last Night in Soho).

“I’ve got this animal rage,” Bunny says, trying to explain her irrational but relatable efforts to see her children, whom the state has taken from her. There’s some Bunny and Sonny in us all.

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This capsule review is part of my coverage of the 2022 Florida Film Festival. For more information about the event and an index of reviews of other festival films, go here. For more information on this movie, visit IMDB.