Some kids get grounded. Bubby got life.
Raised from a child to a man in one small dilapidated room by a mentally challenged mother who browbeats him daily with the message that the outside world is poison, Bubby grew up… Different.
Bubby is now in his mid thirties but still a child. Mama uses him for her own amusement and *ugh* sexual fulfilment. She lies when it suits and takes frustrations out on this man sized child.
Then ‘Dad’ comes home after decades. Mama seems delighted, and the mood is jubilant for a short time. But things definitely don’t improve, and suddenly, Bubby is outside.
For the first time. Ever. Alone.
Everything outside is new. Different people, smells experiences. The music especially is intoxicating to Bubby, who, with his wide eyes, crazy hair and knack for mimicry, nonetheless manages to make more ‘friends’ and impact more people’s lives in twelve hours than I did in my first five years in the city.
Random acts and dark and unsettling undertones accompany Bubby on his journey through coincidence and good fortune. You initially wonder whether it will be Bubby doing the harm to another – or vice versa. Potentially dangerous situations are deflated by his naivety – often in unlikely ways. It is when he becomes the lead singer of an alt rock band that the film goes too far. All of a sudden his bizarre inane chatter over staccato beats becomes instantly and inexplicably hypnotising to large audiences, leaving Bubby a local legend, and not the severely impaired man who carries a dead cat wrapped in plastic that he actually is.
Bad Boy Bubby is not the insane mindfuck that I found it when I chanced upon it on video in my late teens, but is certainly is dark and unsettling stuff, and while it was a startling acting debut from Nicholas Hope, this is still the case of ‘look at me!’ filmmaking, rather than the exhilarating character study some claim.
Final Rating – Rating Refused. Like Excision before it, you could argue the merits of this film, I just don’t see that it has a reason to exist beyond gonzo Arthouse pretension.
