We Were Dangerous Review: A Coming-of-Age Tale of Energetic Independence and Defiance

We Were Dangerous Review: A Coming-of-Age Tale of Energetic Independence and Defiance

The Matron (Rima Te Wiata) of Te Motu School for Incorrigible and Delinquent Girls truly believes she’s doing the work of God through her three education principles: “Christianize, civilize, and assimilate.” Why? Because they saved her as a young Māori teenager adrift and in search of purpose. She renounced her heritage, embraced the idea that the British colonization of New Zealand was a blessing, and devoted her life to instilling that same wh…

WE WERE DANGEROUS – Review

Manaia Hall as Daisy, Erana James as Nellie and Nathalie Morris as Lou, in WE WERE DANGEROUS. Courtesy of The Forge The dangerous in WE WERE DANGEROUS are three rebellious teen girls at a New Zealand reform school in 1954. But New Zealand director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s satiric WE WERE DANGEROUS is surprisingly entertaining, both funny and terrifying, as these three independent girls resist the institution’s efforts to break their spirits a…