A newly sober detective must prove his AA sponsor has the power to make people disappear using his butt.
Everyone knows a classic cop/criminal film. They’re a staple genre in the great American canon dating back to the 1920s serial publications. By now the formula is tired and overused, but our fascination with serial killers injected some much-needed energy into the entity as a whole. “Butt Boy” tackles this amalgam of cop melodrama and serial killer procedural and takes it to the extreme with its lurid and hilarious premise. Not once does it flinch as “Butt Boy” delivers on something both achingly familiar and hilarious at the same time.
After a child goes missing, a newly sober detective suspects that his sponsor has a superpower that makes animals, objects, and humans disappear in his butt. That’s it. That’s the whole premise. It features no notable actors, no incredibly expensive special effects, and no unique characterizations. It does deliver on the cop melodrama in spades, however, by doubling down on moody lighting and synth soundtrack.
Tyler Rice plays Detective Russell Fox. After being assigned to a missing children’s case he stumbles down a rabbit hole to discover his own AA sponsor Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack) might be involved. Rice plays his character with a passion leaning into the troubled cop dynamic aggressively. Cornack, for his own part, performs so dry that he makes a serial killer look interesting. While neither character garners deep introspection both actors play off each other (and their fellow co-stars) gaining every chuckle and laugh by just waiting out the extra second.
We find out the gimmick VERY early on and the investigation doesn’t take long either, which makes me appreciate this movie even more. It doesn’t waste time on the chase and instead delivers answers as it goes along. This film carries its gimmick so far as to genuinely impress me, and even though you know it you still question it. Thankfully, it dives more into the gimmick when it rounds the corner on its finale and gives us a truly hilarious vision of anal hell.
The care taken to make this movie feels very uneven in its execution. The cop scenes come in stark contrasts with neon oranges and greens or reds and purples. Even the AA meetings take place in a reasonably well-lit warehouse. The moment this movie jumps into suburban life, everything falls flat. Everything is well lit and nothing seems off. It’s shot exclusively in wides or tight close-ups, but that only adds to the tension of the edit. Despite the uneven attention to detail the whole thing still feels impressive.
Butt Boy makes a mockery of police procedurals and serial killer true crime material but all with a straight face. The synth-heavy soundtrack ties it all together and entirely carries big emotional moments. This movie earns its laughs and leaves you guessing often. More than anything, this movie pays off everything it sets up in bloody fashion. I recommend the not-squeamish go see this one in theaters. With their friends. It’s a riot.
In select theaters April 3rd, on VOD April 14th, and on Blu-ray & DVD April 28th
