Mark Reviews Movies: BUTT BOY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 13, 2020

Co-writer/director/star Tyler Cornack plays Butt Boy, a movie about a guy who ingests things and animals and people into the place where the sun doesn't shine, with complete seriousness. It's a comedic premise, of course, and even before our hero becomes a prisoner inside the villain's rectum, the story has become patently absurd.

Cornack has to know this. You'd never be able to tell, though, from the resulting movie, which is presented like a straightforward crime thriller, complete with alternately shadowy and neon-infused cinematography, straight-faced performances, and plenty of personal drama and angst between the plot beats.

That dichotomy—between the ludicrous setup and the somber approach—seems to be the central joke here. It's definitely not the idea that Chip Gutchell (Cornack), a normal guy with a miserably boring life, develops an addiction for sticking things up his backside after a routine prostate examination, even though those items quickly escalate from a TV remote, to the family dog, and to a baby.

The main plot, set nine years after Chip discovers and suppresses his obsession, has the anally retentive man's habit returning. Through an anonymous support group for addicts, Chip becomes acquainted with a local police detective named Russell Fox (Tyler Rice), who's obsessive in his own way—an alcoholic, still pining for his ex-wife (There's another important detail, held until the second act, that makes this personal for him). When a child goes missing from Chip's office, Russell suspects the deceptively ordinary man.

The mechanics of Chip's addiction don't make a bit of sense (Even when we see what happens to Chip's victims, Cornack visualizes the surreal scene literally, which further confuses matters). The bewildering physics and anatomical processes are really the only way we know this is supposed to be a comedy. That disconnect might be the weirdest thing about this movie, which, again, is about a guy who becomes akin to a serial killer in the way he consumes people through his anus—and also, on a side note, develops superpowers in the process.

While the filmmakers' tonal experimentation is intriguing, it also puts up a huge barrier around the humor, from which it can't escape. We know we're watching a comedy, but Butt Boy is so intent on portraying this material with dread sincerity that the movie refuses to let us laugh at it or with it.

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