Punch is a New Zealand coming-of-age film about the unlikely friendship between a schoolboy boxer and a flamboyant, young Māori singer.
Welby Ings is an academic and filmmaker with an interest in "the history of the culture of male prostitution, homosexual law reform, mental health and marginalised thinking".
All of these subjects feature in his debut feature film Punch.
Schoolboy Jim (Jordan Oosterhof) is a keen, you might even say obsessive, would-be boxer. He trains all day and every day under the eye of his dad Stan (Tim Roth).
This is small-town New Zealand, and Jim's a pretty typical, popular kid at school. He hangs out with his mates, he's got a girlfriend who has to play second fiddle to his boxing career.
And they all hoon around town in a mate's old car, jeering at unpopular kids.
In that case, it's the only gay boy in the village, a kid called Whetu.
One of the teachers protests "Nobody cares that you're gay, Whetu" but it's clearly an issue - particularly in the ultra-male area of boxing.
Jim has no real connection with Whetu until he injures himself near his homemade beach shack. Whetu shows him around.
So now the story seems to take a slightly unexpected direction - the enthusiastically gay would-be singer Whetu making friends with the straight boxer Jim.
Will Punch remain as non-binary as this or will it turn into a more predictable "coming of age" story?
Meanwhile, the other plot of Punch continues to simmer on the back burner. Jim's dad is an alcoholic, and Jim's getting tired of tidying up his messes.
He's also got doubts that Dad's the right person to train him for that all-important first boxing match.
Jim is lured away from his dad by a squad of shady professional trainers who promise they can take the young boxer where he needs to go.
But is it really what Jim wants to do now? Wouldn't he prefer to spend time with his new mate Whetu, and indulge his other enthusiasm, making music videos?
In the final half hour of the film, we seem to suffer from too many punch lines.
Dad bets heavily on the boxing match, for his own reasons, and is warm and empathetic although he often falls out with Jim.
Meanwhile, hotheaded Whetu falls foul of the wrong people, leaving Jim with more than one decision to make…
There are the usual dark forces going on in the rural New Zealand town - homophobia, secrets and lies, one chance to get out from under, and the brutal nature of professional, small-town boxing, I suppose.
But by the end of Punch, all that "cinema of unease" starts to grind you down.
It does look great, in a brooding sort of way, and the three lead performances are fine.
I'm delighted to report that it's been greeted enthusiastically by many local critics. But for me, while I could certainly admire the components, I found it difficult to love Punch as a whole.
