Well, that was certainly dark, demented, and depressing. This is definitely not a film for the squeamish or those that don’t like heavier subject matter, but I felt it was very effective at what it was trying to do. Life can be hard for those who come from bad situations and/or have certain disabilities, trying to adjust to the real world when you don’t have the proper social skills or have deep-rooted trauma-induced behavior can seem almost impossible. Society doesn’t always treat those less fortunate very well, sad to say, but the film does ultimately show that even those that seem like they have nothing to look forward to in life can find a ray of hope and happiness. Let’s do a brief rundown of the plot.
Bubby is a thirty-something year old man living with his mother in a dilapidated apartment. He seems to have some sort of mental condition (not sure if it’s meant to be intellectual disability or autism spectrum or something else), which isn’t helped by an abusive and domineering mother, Florence, who regularly demeans him and tries to keep him in a child-like state. She forbids him from going outside, which she claims is due to poison in the air, and often uses Jesus as a means to keep him in line. On top of all this, she also regularly has sex with him, screwing up his perception and understanding even more. Eventually, Bubby’s father Harold shows up at the apartment (not knowing he even had a son) and wants to get back with Florence, who agrees. This only causes more problems for Bubby, as the dad is even more abusive and demeaning than the mom, and the two often gang-up on the guy. Bubby eventually becomes overwhelmed with all of this and suffocates the two with cling-wrap (something he had previously done to the cat in order to “keep it still”). Left with nothing but a wrecked apartment, two dead bodies, and a dead cat covered in cling-wrap, he decides to leave the apartment, after realizing that the poison line was false. Many subsequent events happen as he travels around the city, including meeting a Salvation Army group and having sex with one of its members, becoming a roadie for a local band before they figure out that he’s this “cling-wrap killer” they’ve seen in the news and send him to stay with a friend of theirs, fondling a woman in public and getting arrested, being raped by a prisoner as punishment for not speaking to the guard when asked, having been considered “rehabilitated” from this and being released, meeting a man in a church who passes on his atheist worldview to Bubby, and so on. As always, I don’t want to give everything away, but just know that even as dark as this film gets, it does have a more uplifting resolution.
In general, I found this film to be quite effective at what it was trying to present. It certainly didn’t pull any punches when it came to its dark topics, portraying the truly horrid abusive squalor that Bubby comes from. His parents are the textbook definition of “gutter-trash,” disgustingly self-indulgent and not caring about anyone but themselves, even if they think they are. The mother tries to keep him in a childlike state, clearly fostering an oedipal relationship with incestuous sex included (which thankfully the filmmakers allowed to remain unsettling rather than making it exploitative), but then all but ditches him when the father re-enters the picture. The father, as previously stated, is also just as abusive, but more in a dominance asserting way, constantly beating and ragging on Bubby for being a freak as well as getting the mother to join in. All of this would be enough to warp any child, but add to that Bubby’s obvious mental divergence, and the problem is compounded many times over. To everyone around, and even to the audience to a degree, Bubby comes across as a very creepy individual, someone that you probably wouldn’t trust or would just think very poorly of, but since we’ve been able to see his circumstances, it’s hard not to feel somewhat sympathetic for the guy. He never got the proper guidance or help he needed to be able to live within society properly, and without any positive figures or knowledgeable guardians in his life, he’s been left to wander a generally unforgiving society that won’t take kindly to his actions. Now, of course, this doesn’t excuse the negative things that he does throughout the film, murder and sexual assault are terrible actions and he would need to pay for them in some form, though I don’t think that form should include prison rape, especially not for someone that’s not entirely cognizant of what they’re doing, but that’s all part of the overall picture of the film. And the story does go to show that not everyone in society would be so harsh to someone like him, even if they’re not one hundred percent positive themselves. The Salvation army people take him in as a comrade, even if they leave him behind the next day. The band does the same and treat him as one of their own, even if they essentially ditch him with a friend of theirs after figuring out he killed his parents (which isn’t an unreasonable choice of action) and later use him as the centerpiece of their performances in which he rants on stage in a rather avant-garde way (which could be seen as exploitative of Bubby’s mental issues on the band’s part, something of an Elephant Man scenario in a way). Even the atheist treats Bubby decently and does want to help him perspective-wise, but of course doesn’t account for his own biases nor Bubby’s impressionable state. Ultimately, though, the film states that there’s always a place or a path for oneself to find happiness, no matter how disadvantaged one is, and even those disadvantages can turn out to be advantageous in a way. Again, I can’t go into too much detail since I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it is a nice note to end on after going through all the ups and downs (mostly downs) beforehand. Now, I should note that while I personally found the film rather unsettling in several ways, the film is almost played in such a way as to come across as something of a dark comedy. This is mostly due to how outrageous some of the events are, so it’s the sort of thing that could be seen as twistedly funny or horribly moving depending on the sort of person you are. I figured it was worth noting that in case my perspective might give some folks expectations that wouldn’t end up aligning with how they see the film.
Anyways, Bad Boy Bubby is a very good film. It creates a very dark yet hopeful experience that can move you or make you laugh or perhaps both. While its story concept isn’t entirely original, as there have been plenty of films about a person wandering through society and meeting different people and/or escaping from a caged existence and seeing the world beyond, it executes its take on this concept very well and will probably stick in your head for a good while afterward. Take a journey with Bad Boy Bubby and see the world through damaged yet hopeful eyes.