Butt Boy (2020)
Directed by/Co-written by/Starring Tyler Cornack
My quest to watch strange new releases continues as I take a look at the appropriately titled Butt Boy. We here at Scared Sloth are no stranger to bizarre premises to movies, but this one might be a little too much for our more faint of heart readers. I’ll lay this one on the line right from the beginning, this movie is about a guy who is addicted to putting things up his butt. I had no idea how this was going to play out, or how serious they would take it, so I was compelled to watch this movie. I never get graphic in my descriptions, but if this is a little too much for you, please come back soon because I’m tackling a lot of movies in the next few weeks leading up to the glorious celebration of Spooktober.
The Shockingly Serious Story Of Butt Boy.
For those of you who are still with me, Butt Boy is the story of Chip, an unhappily married IT worker whose life hasn’t turned out quite the way he hoped. Between an unfulfilling office job and a wife he suspects is cheating on him, Chip has nothing in his life that brings him joy. But when a prostate exam reveals an unexpected pleasure, Chip begins experimenting with what, or who, he can fit up there. This puts him on a collision course with a seasoned alcoholic detective, Russell, who gets assigned the strangest case of his career when he must investigate a disappearance that Chip is involved with. Things get even more complicated when Chip becomes Russell’s AA sponsor.
Butt Boy Is Not Quite As Weird As I Was Expecting. Except For Chip.
You’d probably think, like I did, that this movie sounds insane and wacky so it must be an over the top and campy movie, but that’s actually not the case at all. Most of the movie follows Chip as a villain protagonist, and Chip is, at best, a cold fish. He’s awkward, monosyllabic, and generally terrible with people, all of which I think maybe part of a meta-joke about how you would expect everything to be nuts, but it really isn’t. It gets even more confusing when the leader of the AA group both Chip and Russell are in speaks highly of Chip and describes him as a beloved veteran of the group, but he’s so weird and awkward and I have no idea if this is supposed to be a joke or just that the leader is a nice guy who assumes the best of Chip. Anyway, not much else in this movie is absurd and over the top, only the bits that I liked were.
Jarring Tonal Shifts Galore!
Part of what makes Butt Boy kind of difficult to talk about is that the plot and tone of the film seem to change with each act. The first act is about Chip getting addicted to putting things up his butt, and yes, these sequences are absurd and I found them quite amusing. The final act of the movie is equally insane but in a different way and it’s one of the best finales to a movie I’ve seen in a long time. Where the big problem for me lies, is the middle act of the film where a detective, Russell, investigates the disappearances in a straightforward way. This leads to a lot of things that might be jokes but I’m not certain if they are or not.
I Struggle A Bit With The Middle Of Butt Boy.
I’ll be completely honest here and admit that I don’t see the point as to why the middle of the film is so slow. And it’s not just a lack of things getting put in Chip’s butt, it’s how purposely drawn out everything is. The dialogue goes on a bit too long and is quite awkward, the score is downbeat and understated, and a lot of time is spent talking about the idea of addiction but for me that never goes anywhere much further than just reminding us that Chip puts things in his butt because his life is unsatisfying and dull. I’m sure that spices up his daily routine but I’m a bit lost on how that is supposed to be entertaining. I liked how this was treated as an addiction, but I’m not sure exactly what Butt Boy was trying to say about addiction. That it’s bad?
There Is A Lot I Liked Here!
But don’t think this means there isn’t anything good in the movie! I’m just mulling over an element that didn’t work for me specifically, but there is plenty I thoroughly enjoyed about Butt Boy. Most of the performances were quite good, I can’t think of anyone who gave a performance I would label bad, and I particularly enjoyed the satirical nature to a lot of the performances. Chip’s boss doesn’t appear in much of the movie but the actor perfectly nails the “We’re a family and we do fun things at this office like sing songs and do teambuilding”, and in that same way the doctor who does Chip’s prostate exam is comically brusque. Everyone is so exaggerated that it feels like we’re seeing them from Chip’s perspective and that makes it feel like the character made the movie, which is appropriate because Chip’s actor is also the director and co-writer.
What I’m Glad Isn’t In The Movie.
One thing that I realized while writing this that I am thrilled about is that I don’t recall there being a single gay joke in Butt Boy, which is downright shocking. A movie with this premise would be so easy to fill with terrible tacky gay jokes and I appreciate that the filmmakers tried to take it a completely different direction. Butt Boy’s humor is much drier than any of that and very reliant on awkward humor and awkward situations, which isn’t usually my style of comedy but if it is then you might get a lot more from those sequences than I did. There are plenty of sequences that don’t rely on dry humor, ones that dive into the absurdity of the premise and that’s when the movie came together for me, and I cannot emphasize enough how perfect the ending is.
Time To Torture Myself With Whether Or Not I Liked Butt Boy.
If it sounds like I’m going back and forth a lot on this movie, it’s because I am. There are a lot of positive aspects of the movie; how it handles an absurd premise, the performances, that entire third act, which all make Butt Boy a fun experience. That’s all in stark contrast to the slow pacing and general dryness of the humor, which makes it a bit more difficult to get a handle on what exactly this movie is. I can definitely see not enjoying the wildly contrasting tones and the juxtaposition of an absurd premise with a relatively serious detective who has to investigate it, but it worked just enough for me to make the movie enjoyable. I would not generally recommend Butt Boy, but if you like absurd premises handled seriously and you don’t mind a slower pace and kind of dry humor I‘d say give it a watch. Unlike other current releases it’s included with Amazon Prime, so you’re not risking a trip to the movie theatres or anything.
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