The Best Part of Breaking Up

Hot off the release of The Breaker Upperers, Alannah Maher speaks to the outrageously funny Jackie Van Beek, Madeleine Sami and Celia Pacquola about love, queer representation in film and the changing landscape of the film industry.

Jackie van Beek and Madeline Sami have proved that it takes a couple of Kiwi filmmakers to not only break the beigeness of the standard rom-com but bring a refreshing authenticity and playfulness to the anti-rom-com genre while they’re at it.

The pair star as Jen and Mel, two unlikely best friends united by a hearty cynicism about love and relationships, who run an unconventional business breaking up couples for cash. Feigning pregnancies, faking deaths, and impersonating cops and strippers are all part of their extensive repertoire. The Breaker Upperers sits somewhere between Broad City, Muriel’s Wedding and Absolutely Fabulous with its ode to female friendship and unflinching, absurdist humour.

“I’ve had so many conversations with people about that dreadful feeling that you have when you realise that you have to break up with your partner but you just so desperately don’t want to do it,” said van Beek, talking about how the idea for the film first struck her. “I was thinking about how so many people would probably pay money not to go through that process... It’s a sad thought, but a funny idea for a movie.” She immediately called up the “funniest woman she knew at the time” to co-write it, five years later we have The Breaker Upperers.

With Sami and van Beek behind the wheel, it’s evident that their shared humour and authenticity is able to flow through the film. “We both love romantic comedies but we both shared a similar feeling toward them in that they always end very conventionally, and we really wanted to, in our small way, have the message that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be a happy ending,” said Sami.

“It doesn’t have to be a heterosexual marriage in a church,” added van Beek. “There’s such a bigger world out there and it’s great that that’s being explored a bit more creatively by people and it’s certainly making its way into the mainstream.”

Among a stellar amount of appearances from the cream of New Zealand’s comedy crop, Australia’s own Celia Pacquola makes her first feature film appearance as the distraught Anna, whose recurring presence holds a mirror up to the suffering Jen and Mel are causing. “It was at a really busy time for me but it was written, directed by and starring two really funny women — of course I want to do that, it’s everything I stand for,” Pacquola told The Music.

While the film revels in its place as an escapist, feelgood romp — its effortlessly, intersectional injection of casting and storylines is actually somewhat revolutionary in the world of conventional films that so often get stuck in certain (straight, white) demographics. From the unabashed bisexuality of one the lead characters, to the multicultural melting pot of Auckland depicted, the film embraces characterisation without reducing anyone to a tokenistic cameo.

“We were conscious of the fact that heartbreak is universal and we wanted to represent a spectrum of people that are going through this and who our characters would come across,” said Sami. “It was intentional to present the world as we see it, which is everyone living harmoniously and unharmoniously together...”

When the film premiered at SXSW in March, the hype train surrounding it soon took off, and among the fanfare and the comparisons to their Kiwi contemporaries, van Beek noted that it definitely felt like they were “being interviewed as female filmmakers,” and that actually wasn’t all bad. “There’s always that trepidation with women and comedy which I don’t understand at all... The funniest people I grew up with were women,” added Sami. “You still get asked that question occasionally: ‘Are women funny?’”

“Certainly I haven’t been asked that question in the past twelve months, I don’t think you’re allowed to ask that question anymore with the current political climate,” said van Beek.

“It’s nice not being asked those ridiculous rudimentary questions, but I enjoy being in focus as women. I think it’s important for women to embrace the spotlight and talk about making films as women... It will be nice when it’s just so normalised that we’re not interviewed as female filmmakers and we’re just interviewed as filmmakers, but we’re not there yet.”

Sami mentioned she’s had a lot of feedback on Twitter about her character’s queerness: “Someone said to me it’s like the queerest film that’s not a queer film that they’ve seen in a long time. Which I feel really proud of, because that’s life, gay people are all around us.”

“We had a very strong idea when we started making this film that we wanted people who might not have their shit together to watch our film to feel that’s okay,” said Sami.

From insights into the complexities of modern relationships and dating, to the daggiest coke snorting scene you’ve ever seen on film, The Breaker Upperers is everything you did and didn’t know you wanted from a movie.

In cinemas from 26 Jul

Kiwi tee-hee

Hollywood has finally caught on to the fact NZ is producing some damn funny people. Here are some of the comedy Kiwis breaking into LA-LA Land.

Julian Dennison

This bright young thing has had a spectacular couple of years, starring opposite Sam Neill in New Zealand’s highest-grossing film ever, Hunt For The Wilderpeople, and most recently in the whopping blockbuster sequel to Deadpool. In both those movies he showcased an irreverent, smack-talking cheek, bringing the comic relief as well as adorable charm.

Rhys Darby

The Flight Of The Conchords star is now a full time resident of LA, but unlike many of his fellow Kiwi A-listers, he’s not had to hide any of his New Zealander quirks to get ahead. Since making his blockbuster debut in 2008 opposite Jim Carrey in Yes Man, his career has skyrocketed, most recently starring in the hotly anticipated Jumanji sequel, Welcome To The Jungle.

Taika Waititi

Few Kiwi stars are on the rise quite as meteorically as director Taika Waititi. After making the cult horror-comedy What We Do In The Shadows in 2014, and the huge home-grown hit Hunt For The Wilderpeople in 2016, he landed his big budget debut directing Thor: Ragnarok, even managing to infuse a healthy dollop of Kiwi flare in the guise of audience favourite character Korg.