Bad Boy Bubby (1993)

4.5 / 5
Tagline: All he needs is love.
Directed By: Rolf de Heer
Written By: Rolf de Heer
Actors Include: Nicholas Hope, Claire Benito, Ralph Cotterill
Genre: Cult, Black Comedy, Drama, Horror
Length: 114 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: Australia/Italy

Review:
This is one of those movies where I was sure I knew what was going to happen and it surprised the heck out of me. This film is actually touching, honest and extremely well acted above all. It's full of twists, yet everything sort of comes together by the end of the film, nothing is unnecessary really. It's incredibly dark which I adore and it's demented to say the least, but who says it can't have a happy ending? Well the story is about 31 year old Bubby who was/is raised by his Mother in a slummy apartment. Mother is possibly one of the most awful and creepy villains I've ever seen in a film. She raises Bubby to believe that he can't go outside because the air is poisoned (which explains why he's 31 and still at home and crazy). Bubby was never really taught how to communicate or comprehend so he has backwards ways of doing things. His Mom acts as his lover nightly and washes him and treats him horrifically like one would a rabid dog. One day Bubby's birth Father shows up and decides to move back in and date his Mom and he gets terribly jealous. Mother is no longer paying attention to him or sleeping with him, and he tries everything to get her attention. One thing Bubby is good at is impressions. Everything his Mom does to him, he acts out with his pet cat. Accidentally he learns that saran wrap on kitty = corpse, but it doesn't matter, he still keeps his pet with him anyhow. He then uses his saran wrap trick on Ma and Pa, and eventually finds his way outside. From here the movie takes a totally different turn. Bubby starts observing and picking up bits of speech to regurgitate, and he makes friends with a band. After a while he becomes their lead singer spouting his impassioned gibberish he's picked up. Then he meets a handicapped home, and Angel the den mother. It turns out he can interpret for a severely handicapped girl that nobody else can understand and it turns into a love story with Angel pretty much from there on out. It's impossible not to feel sorry for Bubby even though he does do some terrible things throughout the film, but moreover this movie sort of fills the viewer with hope that anyone can reach normalcy no matter how many odds are stacked against them. It really truly impressed me as a film and I'd say that just about anyone can get something out of it so long as they can stomach the Mother and Son sex scenes.