Buddy Boy

A bumpy story, but this is a good thing. I found myself saying, "What the....?" several times. After a slow start, the plot adds new ingredients which steer us into the muddy waters of a man's wild delusions and his equally bizarre reality. The lines blur without warning and the film securely carries us out of the normal boundaries and trappings of life. Well acted and written while the directing lacked nothing. To see Emmanuelle Seigner again (Ninth Gate) was a pleasant surprise. I'd probably need to see this one again. I liked it. 7 of 10

The stutterer Francis (Aidan Gillen) is a lonely religious man that works processing photos and lives with his abusive stepmother Sal (Susan Tyrrell) that is invalid in a gloomy apartment. Francis has a dreadful solitary life and he works, takes care of Sal and goes to the Catholic Church and his relief is his faith in God. Francis is also a voyeur and spends his nights watching a beautiful neighbor in another building through a hole on the wall from the back stairs of his building and masturbating later.

One day, Francis stumbles with the woman that is being robbed by a thief on the street and he helps her. She introduces herself as Gloria (Emmanuelle Seigner) and invites him to have dinner with her. Gloria explains that she is vegan and soon they have a love affair and Francis loses his virginity with Gloria that loves him. But Francis becomes obsessed to watch Gloria and he believes that she has other men and is cannibal, eating the flesh of her lovers. The schizophrenic behavior of the delusional Francis makes him see weird things in Gloria's apartment.

"Buddy Boy" is a bleak tale of schizophrenia, with a dark story of a religious man that becomes insane and delusional. The director and writer Mark Hanlon makes a weird independent movie following the style of David Lynch and makes a tribute to "The Tenant", "Rear Window" and "Blue Velvet". It is unbelievable that "Buddy Boy" is the only work of this promising director. Aidan Gillen, Susan Tyrrell, Emmanuelle Seigner and Mark Boone Junior have exceptional performances. Emmanuelle Seigner is still in the top of her beauty and is difficult to find a reasonable reason for her love for the weird Francis. The colors in this movie are very dark, especially in the dingy apartment where Francis and Sal live. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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.

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.

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.