Rolf De Heer
Bad Boy Bubby

The tender and defenseless Bubby, contrary to what the title of the fourth directorial effort made in 1993 by the interesting filmmaker, Dutch by birth but Australian by residence, Rolf De Heer, might suggest, is not at all a bad boy. Quite the opposite. 

Undoubtedly, he has some rather bizarre habits, but that doesn’t necessarily make our Bubby a Bad Boy; on the contrary, all things considered, he is a lad, although now grown up, capable of exhibiting exemplary behavior: primarily, he prefers never to disobey (“There's Jesus, who sees everything!”) even if it means soiling himself (“Don't move, even if you have to go”) just to comply with the loving yet stern command of staying still given by patient Mother (Ogre). 

Of course, to be very meticulous, the boy seems a bit unhinged, but in his position, who wouldn’t be: locked away for thirty-five years inside a filthy and horrifying hovel, beyond which -the outside world, where you can’t and mustn’t go- the air is lacking: there’s poison; if Mommy always goes out with a gas mask, there must be a reason, right? The only (sub)human company within Bubby’s confined world has always been the sweet, affectionate Mother; the opportunities for recreation, as you’d agree, cannot be many. Even in the evening, like a good child, Bubby must “be good”: the loving Mommy needs, every single night, some intimate and carnal company.

During the calm day, Ba-bi dedicates himself with dedication to hunting the few cockroaches emerging from the foul cracks of the abhorrent “home” and to their surgical dissection, and, when Mother is quite busy with household chores, patiently (yet lovingly) torturing the poor neurotic kitty perpetually caged inside a filthy metal den with twine and a roll of cellophane. 

Life within these squalid, malodorous four walls might seem a bit strange, but to the imperturbable Bubby, it doesn’t seem more burdensome than necessary: he seems capable of finding his fulfillment by being content with small and repetitive daily joys; moreover, he speaks only when questioned and never complains: at most, he’ll imitate you. Perfectly.

In short, he has always been a good child, Bubby.

At least until the inexplicable happens, the impossible: frozen, he seems to hear someone (“from outside..”) knocking on the door through which He cannot and must not, under any circumstances, exit: a shouting, unfamiliar, new voice (to imitate..) “Pop?” comes from the dangerous and unexplainable world, from the airless world, situated just beyond the door carefully, by DearMommy, barred.  

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Claustrophobic, unhealthy, grotesque, blasphemous, shocking, insane: these are the first chilling twenty minutes of the uncompromising yet intriguing work conceived, written, and directed magnificently by filmmaker De Heer, perfectly acted and characterized by the eclectic and convincing Nicholas Hope, in his debut in front of the camera, a sort of Jack Nicholson with a character considerably more deranged and genuinely “out there” than the same character he portrayed admirably in Kubrick’s “The Shining”.

Winner of the Venice Special Jury Prize, “Bad Boy Bubby” turns out, as is often the case in De Heer's cinema, a baffling, difficult, courageous, irritably ironic work. Seek it out.  

Otherwise, dear Bubby might really become bad.