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Hollywood in my Huis

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Hollywood in My Huis (Facebook)
Hollywood in My Huis (Facebook)

What’s it about:

Set against the backdrop of 2004's Matric dance, Jana Van Tonder a wallflower who lives in an impoverished railway neighborhood with her dysfunctional parents, watches the Oscars and becomes inspired to secure her very own Hollywood red carpet moment at the up and coming Matric Farewell Dance.

When her high school crush Brandon breaks up with his long time girlfriend Jana has to find the courage to ask him to the dance.

Meanwhile her best-friend and boy-next-door Frikkie is finally motivated to reveal his secret crush on her.
With only one month to go Jana soon finds herself in the middle of a love triangle between her closest friend and dream date.

What we thought:

Being a 20 something adult that has probably watched every important coming of age rom-com movie out there, I have to admit I wasn't very excited to hear a local movie of that theme was being released.

I was quite pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie. Well I know many of us have this judgment of anything locally made and maybe this is due to international movies being so blockbuster and record setting crazy, but that’s another story.

Hollywood in my Huis brings a little bit of everything to the screens.

It tells a story of Jana van Tonder played by the spirited Christa Visser. She has vivid imagination and like every other 18-year-old girl, her matric farewell is the second best day in her life leading up to her wedding day.

After seeing Charlize Theron in the silver gown she wore when she won an Oscar, Jana dreams of having her own Oscar moment.

Jana is the only child of Tos and Beatrice van Tonder who are the definition of dysfunctional, dysfunctional in the best way possible. Jana’s dad played by Louw Venter gives a great performance as a free-spirited man, trying to keep the women in his life happy. Yes, he may be unemployed but his passion for gardening provides great comedic moments.

However, Beatrice van Tonder is nothing like her husband. She has a salon in her caravan and is the typical example of a sexy housewife (minus the housewife part). She just wants poor old Tos to make ends meet to provide for his family.

As one would imagine the dynamic between these two polar opposite characters gives quite a few good laughs throughout the film.

Then there’s Edwin van der Walt who plays the adorable Frikkie that stole my lonely heart. Frikkie is the loveable best friend that would do anything and I mean anything to help Jana snatch Brandon’s (the popular guy) hand for the matric farewell dance.

Frikkie is the typical ‘boy next-door’ who is over shadowed by Brandon Fourie played by Viljie Maritz. Frikkie proves to be the rose amongst those thorny bushes, as Jana cannot see what lengths her best friend will go to prove he cares for her... But I can (yes I may just have a little crush on Edwin after seeing him in this movie).

The overall movie is a delight to watch. It brings all those fuzzy emotions to the brim and makes you want to go look at your old matric photos again. The lead characters prove to have great chemistry and as usual you’re always rooting for the underdog.

The only thing that didn’t quite work was the random musical singing and dancing numbers. I’m kind of over the High School Musical, lets sing and dance about everything scenes. Luckily there aren’t too many.

Along with over-coming typical high school things like mean girls, peer pressure, Hollywood in my Huis has a little bit of all your favourite rom-coms meshed into one. There’s a Cinderella moment, a Mean Girls moment and High School Musical moment that I’m sure young people will enjoy.

Also, shout out to a then preggie Elana Afrika who plays the very best fairy godmother I’ve seen.

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