With an aggressive title like “Butt Boy,” you fully expect that the film is going to be humorous and possibly off-putting. And it is, with moments that are truly laugh-out-loud funny and others that will make you cringe. But when you break it down to its very core, Tyler Cornack’s film really explores complicated themes such as struggles with addiction, grief, and the tragic, tedious lives that adults of a certain age experience when the excitement of youth is gone. Believe it or not, “Butt Boy” isn’t just a silly, ridiculous thriller about a man and his polyembolokoilamania, it is, for lack of a better term, much deeper than that. Well, it is…until it isn’t.
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Chip (Cornack, who also serves as director and co-writer) is a boring, suburban father that works a job that he hates, has a child he didn’t plan for, and lives with a wife that would rather talk on the phone and go out late at night than spend time with him. The man needs something, anything, to spice things up. And after his first prostate exam, Chip finds what he was looking for—anal play. Shortly thereafter, his obsession with shoving items into his butt gets out of hand, and, inexplicably, he begins inserting larger and larger items, including a bar of soap, a remote control, the family dog, and most tragically appalling, a human baby.
But that’s just the first 10 minutes of the 100-minute film. From there, the film jumps almost a decade ahead in time, where Chip is a longtime attendee of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (they don’t have groups for his specific affliction) and trying to kick the habit. There, he meets Detective Russell Fox (Tyler Rice), a man with his own addiction and grief, but also someone who happens to lead an investigation into a missing child case that links back to Chip. This is where “Butt Boy” begins its “Heat”-esque plot, featuring a cat-and-mouse game between the possible criminal and the stop-at-nothing police officer.
The ridiculous premise, in other filmmakers’ hands, could have been fodder for a straight-forward, gross-out R-rated comedy. But director Cornack and his co-writer Ryan Koch don’t go that route. Instead, the first two acts of “Butt Boy” are played with the utmost sincerity, with the laughs coming more as a reaction to the absurdity and not because of any specific jokes. Despite the unbelievable nature of the crimes that Chip is accused of—did he really shove a child into his rectum?—and the “every detective ever” character of Fox, Cornack and Rice’s performances, respectively, make you feel for the characters in an unexpected, honest way.
The earnestness of the acting carries over into the filmmaking style, as well. Scenes where Chip and his home life are featured, the director presents a fluorescent world where everything is well-lit but the colors are muted and dull. And when Fox’s story takes center stage, “Butt Boy” begins to look like a hard-boiled ‘70s or ‘80s crime thriller, with smoke-filled rooms and neon lighting everywhere. Combined with the music by Feathers, there’s a lot to like about the aesthetic and world that Cornack and his crew create. Sure, the look of the film seems familiar, but it’s never played for laughs.
Unfortunately, “Butt Boy” begins to wear out its welcome about half-way through, with the storyline becoming unsurprising and obvious, the shock of witnessing Chip’s addiction wearing off, and the audience left to wonder if Cornack’s film would have been better served as a short. And it’s almost as if the filmmaker intended for audiences to grow weary, as the wandering thoughts make the absolute insanity of the third act hit much harder.
Having spent the better part of the film subverting your expectations and establishing itself as a decently-made, if not predictable, thriller, “Butt Boy” sheds all pretense and thematic aspirations, presenting a finale that will leave jaws agape, stomachs turned, and minds blown. If you think the idea of a boring IT guy shoving various objects into his ass is bonkers and outrageous enough, “Butt Boy” takes the ridiculousness and turns it up to 11.
There’s no way the third act will be spoiled here, but suffice it to say, what you witness in the final half-hour of “Butt Boy” is startling, repulsive, inane, and astonishing. Granted, that description may sound like hyperbole. It’s not. The conclusion of Cornack’s film ensures that “Butt Boy” will secure a lasting place in the hearts of cinephiles that love more than anything to sit with a friend and force them to experience something batshit crazy. It’s the boldest, perhaps most polarizing ending of a film seen all year.
Does the shocking nature of the third act fix the aforementioned tedium and familiarity of the first two-thirds of the film? Not at all. In fact, the finale will no doubt be a complete turn-off for those hoping “Butt Boy” kept the tone of the beginning. But for those that are willing to sit back and enjoy the ride, Cornack has delivered a film that will make you laugh, feel (albeit only to have those emotions flee by the end), and possibly vomit. Thankfully, if your life is as horrible as Chip’s, at least you have this film to save you from a life of criminal butt behavior. [B]
