Bad Boy Bubby

Finally, the lines of bad taste and extreme nihilism have been crossed without squandering the quality of a film. I have seen countless films trying to jump on the sadistic bandwagon, by throwing globs of blood and taboo situations in their film trying to bring about a new Gummo. All of their efforts are in vain, and only makes the director look intellectually challenged. Director Rolf De Heer not only creates a film that will sicken you with it's clueless sadism, but will also throw you in a world we have seen all our life, but in a new perspective.

Nicholas Hope (Scooby Doo & Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid) plays Bubby. Bubby is a 35 year old socially challenged man-child who learns only through imitation and deranged experimentation. His mother resembles the egg lady from Pink Flamingo's and using her sternness, she coerces Bubby into having sex with her. She has raised him into believing the outside world was filled with poisonous gas and he should never leave. All this changes when his pop comes home.


The film involves a two room decrepit apartment, which is covered in stains and cracks in the wall. De Heer had over thirty cameramen shooting the scenes to give it a discovery look; sort of like Aladdin's bravado "A Whole New World." The film is potentially a Fish out of Water comedy mixed with the malignancy that leaks from Harmony Korine's films. One potentially avant-garde method used in this film are the microphones sewn into Hope's wig, to record the sound as if it were being heard.


The film is not merciful in its actual depicted cruelty towards a cat. This may be flagged as a horrible thing to do, I agree, but I cannot deny that it built up the mood and character to an extreme degree. The character essentially grows up in a hostile environment with sexual indecency, degeneracy, and violence. Through his act of imitation, he becomes a better person. Bubby can also be seen as a messianic character, suddenly reborn into a new world where he changes things using a power he was unaware, much like he is of his surroundings.

Bad Boy Bubby is a visually striking film lit up with vibrant colors expressing an unmistakable doom containing non-stop aggression and cinematic diseases in the first half an hour, then morphs into something beautiful; an important film that features amazing musical performances and a truly wrenching experience. An unforgettable masterpiece of dark humor.

-Maq