Hibiscus & Ruthless (2018) Online

"Hibiscus & Ruthless" will be no Academy Award nominee, it's true. It understandably is full of Kiwi & Pacific Islander humor and accents, which can often be quite dry and tongue-in-cheek. Sometimes this comes over as "wooden" to Americans, though outstanding actor and director Taika Waititi is known for similar one-liners, in his still upwardly mobile distinquished career.

Hibiscus, one of the main characters, her family, and most supporting characters are indigenous Pacific Islanders, and this is basically a "slice of life" story about her and a young female friend who have very different personalities, growing into young womanhood. There's the contrast between Hibicus's mother's strict traditional rules and a good and dutiful daughter who naturally just wants to have some fun, too. There's a good bit of comedy, some romance, and a few interesting scenes featuring Islander life, colorful dances and performances. I rated it a 6 for those particular elements.

It's not a waste of time by any means. It's light-hearted, passably enjoyable if you're not looking for Twilight level angst and drama, superheroes or guns blazing. Spamming 1 star reviews, boosting/reducing and copy/pasting comments of "this is a dumb and forgettable" film is unfortunately widespread these days, and they should be taken with a grain of salt.