The year is 1991, and Spud Milton's long walk to manhood is still creeping along at an unnervingly slow pace. Approaching the ripe old age of fifteen and still no signs of the much anticipated ball-drop, Spud is coming to terms with the fact that he may well be a freak of nature. With a mother hell-bent on emigrating, a father making a killing out of selling homemade moonshine, and a demented grandmother called Wombat, the new year seems to offer little except extreme embarrassment and more mortifying Milton madness. But Spud is returning to a boarding school where he is no longer the youngest or the smallest. His dormitory mates, known as the Crazy Eight, have an unusual new member and his house has a new clutch of first years (the Normal Seven). If Spud thinks his second year will be a breeze, however, he is seriously mistaken.
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This sequel to Spud follows the same group of boys at their South African boarding school as the country navigates its way out of apartheid. The searing political backdrop is occasional mentioned but mostly ignored and the film focus is instead on the teenage growing pains of the titular character.Where the first film explored the complex social relationships at such an establishment this sequel skips straight to escapades and actions. This distances you from the characters, less bought into their situation and potential outcomes and instead watching remotely as a potentially disinterested observer.The escapades range in scale but are often tinged in nastiness. The bullying is sharper, more malicious in nature and has far greater consequences.I left the film with less sympathy for Spud and his fellow students than I entered it, and less entertained than the first film had left me hoping. On the whole a misfire, lets hope Spud 3 resolves these challenges.
