Charming Billy

1999
1h 22m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Billy Starkman is a seemingly ordinary man living in a small Midwestern town who one day wakes up, murders his family, climbs a rural water tower with a high-powered hunting rifle and begins... Read allBilly Starkman is a seemingly ordinary man living in a small Midwestern town who one day wakes up, murders his family, climbs a rural water tower with a high-powered hunting rifle and begins shooting innocent people. Threading the terribly tragic with the maddeningly mundane, Cha... Read allBilly Starkman is a seemingly ordinary man living in a small Midwestern town who one day wakes up, murders his family, climbs a rural water tower with a high-powered hunting rifle and begins shooting innocent people. Threading the terribly tragic with the maddeningly mundane, Charming Billy attempts to imagine what could possibly lead a man to commit the unimaginable.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

206

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win total

Photos3

User reviews7

6.3206

Featured reviews

8hamburgerman

controversial subject matter, well executed

I saw this film at the Inaugural Durango Film Festival in March 2001. The controversial subject matter in CHARMING BILLY is well executed, no pun intended. Great acting from every performer. Nicely paced film. I hope to see more work from these filmmakers in the future.

9snowleopard

Powerful Independent Film

This independent, art-house film saw limited release in 1999-2000, but is not to be missed. It contains a powerful mix of tension, pathos, and social despair, as the lead character, Billy - a good person with too much stress from too many everyday problems, slowly succumbs to the difficulties of life. While not an easy film to watch, which is certainly why it missed the big theatres, it is an excellent film that achieves all it strives for, and is recommended to all fans of the independent genre. Let's see more films from these filmmakers.

7archerohio

Great movie, really well acted

I caught this on IFC the other day (Thank God for that channel). I was blown away. Although the cast is relatively unknown, they do an amazing job of following one man's descent into madness, and the chilling effects on those around him. I am really perplexed by all the "controversiy" that surrounded this movie, yet torture films like SAW III and Hostel don't ruffle any feathers. Although disturbing, Charming Billy is a story, not just a bunch of scenes where naked women are cut to pieces, brain surgery is performed with drills, and everyone is basically a little dumber for watching them. Catch this hidden gem if you get a chance.

9tgreen-4

Tense.

Billy is charming, easy going, and scary. You don't see that right away, but from the very beginning you sense something about him, you just don't know what it is. The whole movie is a tribute to the talents of writer/director, Mr. William Pace.

It's not often someone puts together a movie that is pitched like a Stradivarius and played like a Wagnerian symphony. You're hooked from the beginning and while throughout the film you're given a breather at just the right places, you don't fully relax until the ending.

It's a wonder to me why this film wasn't picked up by a studio, but I firmly believe they missed out. You'll have to buy the video but it's well worth the cost.

3g5-geek

A real Sick-Flick

And I don't mean Eli Roth Hostel sick. Nine year old boy seen through a sniper scope sick.

Charming Billy is about an "ordinary man" who lives an "ordinary life" in a small "ordinary town". The scenery is ordinary, but Billy himself is not. With the tragic loss of his mother and his fathers own sick twisted way of showing his son he loves him, Billy Starkman has grown up and lived his life without truly knowing what an ordinary life should be. And how would one deal with that? Well randomly off people from a water tower, of course!

The problem with his flick is it just didn't always add up. The acting was poor in crucial scenes, and fair in those where an over-the-top performance would be acceptable. Nothing about this film was entertaining, touching, scary...it just took up time.

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7.6

Le Cinquième Élément

Storyline

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Did you know

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Goofs
About 48 minutes into the movie, Billy and his grandfather are watching home movies. When we see the movie projector from far away, the front reel is very small and the back reel is big. In close-ups of the projector, both reels are the same size.

Quotes
Ray Starkman: Shoulda figured you for a breast man; never did think we'd get you offa your mothers.
Billy Starkman: Maybe that's the problem, there's too many opportunities. Opportunities for advancement, opportunities for growth...opportunities for opportunities missed.

Crazy credits
Final credit after the copyright notice is a quote from novelist Harry Crews: What I know is that all over the surface of the earth where humankind exists men and women are resisting climbing the Tower. All of us have a Tower to climb. Some are worse than others, but to deny that you have your Tower to climb and that you must resist it or succomb to the tempation to do it, to deny that is done at the peril of your heart and mind.