Buddy Boy

Buddy Boy is an amazingly twisted and brilliantly written piece. Hanlon is obviously a man possessing exceptional skill and an enviable creative mind. The film requires that its audience possess the intelligence and acumen in order to appreciate its complicated, dark beauty. One can only hope that he continues to provide the movie-going community with such wonderfully challenging material.

I really enjoyed the film. I loved the repetition of shots and the plot twists. At first the film looked like it was going to be somewhat normal but then it turned into a darker, more twisted view of human nature. I felt that I was guessing what was going to happen next and had theories in mind before the ending came. And what an ending it was! I have a feeling I'm going to have to watch it again at least once more before I can come up with any solid theory. I give it an 8-9 out of 10.

Buddy Boy is a psychological thriller on the same scale of Roman Polanski movies. While seeing Buddy Boy it immediately reminded me of a particular Polanski movie, The Tenant. Both stories deal with men looking abroad to the windows of others and noticing bizarre happenings. Thus causes the men to slowly go insane and therefore indulge themselves within their own insanity.

The story deals with a stuttering young man who is very reclusive and lives with his stepmother. He spends most of the time locked in his room. A perverse pass time of his is to look inside the apartment of a beautiful woman, played by Polanski’s wife, Emmanuelle Seigner. He falls in love with the woman’s image without knowing her. As the story develops they eventually meet and become friends. The young man continues to spy on the woman due to his lack of trust in her. As he peeps into the woman’s apartment, he begins to notice that she cooks human flesh and eats it raw. He goes over the woman’s apartment, only to discover that she is eating vegetables, I forgot to mention the woman is a vegetarian. The young man begins to think God hates him for making him see terrible things. Apparently the only time he sees the acts of cannibalism is when he is at his Peeping Tom area. This is the beginning of one man’s decent into madness.

I expected to see a particular type of stylish psychological film, instead I witnessed something more disturbing than what I usually see. Nevertheless it was an interesting movie. The style is ugly, its not elegant it’s simply ugly. So far I have not learned to like this particular style, I prefer something more elegant, meaning I dislike movies that take place in the rural areas of a metropolitan city. Despite the settings I thought the film was decent. It’s definitely a change of pace horror film instead of watching the typical teenage slasher Hollywood flicks. Which I don’t see but I’m sure they are terrible. Buddy Boy is a film that allows you to have your own conclusion, it doesn’t give you the ending, you create it yourself by what you saw from the flick.

1st watched 4/5/2007 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Mark Hanlon): Disturbing and fascinating story of a recluse who does nothing except take care of his ailing step mother until he meets his next door neighbor who he happens to be peeping at thru a hole in his basement on a daily basis. The peeping continues despite the fact that she falls in love with him and they spend many evenings together. She openly confesses to being a vegan, but Francis(the recluse) starts seeing things thru his peep hole that makes him think otherwise. Francis's life has been mixed up for awhile. His real mom&dad are dead -- his step mom is crazy & crippled, he lives a mundane life where he goes to work on the same bus everyday and doesn't really interact with people and knows very little about women until his next door neighbor comes along and disrupts his simple boring life. There is also a religious aspect to his life that does nothing but confuse him and gives him somewhere to confess his sins, but does nothing to help him in real life. Despite this, everything is going along OK until his step mom accidentally kills his boyfriend and Francis suspects his neighbor is killing men in her apartment and having a little snacky-poo from the remains(which is technically not being a vegan). OK, now that I've said this much, I still hope you will see this well done independent movie. It's compelling, creepy and a nice study on human existence for a few mixed up people.

For those who can make the necessary suspension of disbelief and contend with the depressingly dark ugliness of this drama, "Buddy Boy" will prove to be a captivating and disturbing look at the troubled life of a homely, introverted, socially inept, stammering young man who dutifully tends to a disabled, alcoholic, and abusive mother while window peeping at a beautiful neighbor. Somewhere between quirky and surreal, "Buddy Boy" is a compelling character study which waxes doggedly toward a somewhat anticlimactic conclusion. Not for everyone, this flick is most likely to be appreciated by those who are into quirky dramas for quirkinesses sake.