The God Boy

The story was shot with moments of creative imagination. It is all recalled in the memory of Jimmy, a 13-year-old boy, and everything that happens is not only seen through the wide eyes of a boy, but a special boy, a Catholic taught by nuns, for whom the happenings of life become coloured and bent in a way that water plays on light ... The boy-actor Jamie Higgins, was an ever-unfolding bliss.

– Dick Campion, ‘Good God Boy’, Listener review, 1 May 1976

The film owes much of its success to the enlightened freedom given to a talented filmmaker, and for once a New Zealand director pushed visual style beyond the limits of bland realism.

– Brian McDonnell, NZ Journal of Media Studies, vol. 7, no.1, 2000