BAD BOY BUBBY

Well, what we have here is a brilliantly mad and touching story of "Bubby" played wonderfully by Nicholas Hope and directed by Rolf de Heer. Bubby's been shut within his crazy mom's dark, dingy apartment for his entire life (35 years). His mother constantly tells him the air outside is poisonous so he's not allowed out. Every day he does various activities to keep himself busy, like wrapping a cat up in plastic (to see if it breathes), catching bugs and playing with them, fucking his mom, sitting in a chair looking catatonically into space, etc etc.

Things change when suddenly one day Bubby's dad shows up after 35 years, not knowing he has a son. Wanting to patch things up with his wife and son, he moves in, but quickly realizes his son is a fucking weirdo. "Christ kid, your a weirdo!" as he puts it.

Bubby only seems to be able to communicate by mimicking what others say and do and there's a really funny sequence where he imitates his dad by putting on his dad's uniform and cutting off about half an inch of hair from his head, then pasting it on his face to make a beard just like daddy's. It's a truly funny and warped scene.

When Bubby's parents go out drinking one night, he completely trashes the place and seizes an opportunity to escape, and starts on a twisted journey into the outside world of sex, booze, crime and pizza.

There are so many memorable scenes in the film. Actually I can't think of one bad scene, everything is weaved together perfectly, despite the film having various cameramen. The thing that really holds the film together is the strength of Bubby's character.

I gotta say that there have been many actors who've portrayed "mad bastards" like Dustin Hoffman in "Rainman", Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" and "One Flew over the cuckoo's nest", Billy Bob Thornton in "Sling Blade", etc etc etc., but Nicholas Hope's portrayal of Bubby is one of the best and most convincing performances I've seen to date, I shit you not. It's flawless.

At times the movie is really dark, at times sad, at times funny. I know it's cheesy to say this, but this film will really change you. This film will leave you thinking for weeks, months, years maybe.

One reviewer on Amazon had a good description of the film. "It's a social commentary that goes 'outside the box', and delivers a thought provoking, if not exaggerated portrayal of the world around us, and how humans function, or not, within it."

Best film I've seen in a long time. Hollywood could've never made this movie.