Haole (2019)

Haole: Directed by James Sereno. With Josiah Cerio, Sir Cornwell, Margaret Jones, Albert Ueligitone. Thirteen-year-old DAVID KEALOHA dreams of escaping rural Hawaii. But when JONAH MORRIS (13), a white kid from Phoenix, Arizona moves into the neighborhood, tragedy strikes, irrevocably changing the trajectory of David’s life and those closest to him.

“I wanted to like this movie. It had a u0026quot;realu0026quot; feeling to it. Real pidgin in the dialogue. Real local actors. Real locales. Real life challenges. Is just too bad the characters had no real redeeming qualitiies. Every character was hewa at one point or another, the hero, the bully, the haole, parents, step parents, store owner, teacher, classmates, the Uncle, even the little girl. For all the Hawaiian words and phrases thrown around and the beautiful scenery, it lacked real cultural sensitivity, a real sense of connection to place and the real kuleana one would feel to act pono.”