Butt Boy
Directed by: Tyler Cornack
Written by: Tyler Cornack and Ryan Koch
Starring: Tyler Cornack, Tyler Rice, Shelby Dash, Austin Lewis, Kristina Clifford
Comedy/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 9 Apr 2020
Written by: Tyler Cornack and Ryan Koch
Starring: Tyler Cornack, Tyler Rice, Shelby Dash, Austin Lewis, Kristina Clifford
Comedy/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 9 Apr 2020
Butt Boy is a title designed to get your attention. It’s provocative and screams, “At least look over here and see what we’re talking about!” When you swivel your neck, it plays nonchalant and pretends it didn’t say anything at all. That’s because other than the absurd title and premise, Butt Boy plays it straight. This police procedural / serial killer hunt takes itself serious. For what wants to be farce and satire, the filmmaking is earnest, the characters have depth and emotional conflicts, but you know, there is only so much one can do to avoid the hole…you know, the plot hole. What did you think I meant?
There are shades of Office Space malaise affecting IT guy Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack). His office mates are that fake type of peppy celebrating who wins the Perseverance Award and a jackass boss who leads rap sing-alongs. Chip’s home life provides no solace. His un-interested wife would rather gab on the phone instead of reciprocate any welcome home kiss. Chip’s gateway drug into the slippery slope of butt stuff occurs during his first prostate exam. He never thought about it, but it appears a fetish has emerged late in life. He is more than excited. He is compelled. He must insert objects up his rectum.
There are shades of Office Space malaise affecting IT guy Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack). His office mates are that fake type of peppy celebrating who wins the Perseverance Award and a jackass boss who leads rap sing-alongs. Chip’s home life provides no solace. His un-interested wife would rather gab on the phone instead of reciprocate any welcome home kiss. Chip’s gateway drug into the slippery slope of butt stuff occurs during his first prostate exam. He never thought about it, but it appears a fetish has emerged late in life. He is more than excited. He is compelled. He must insert objects up his rectum.
Starting small, there are game board pieces, the remote control, and eventually the family dog. Cornack, who also directs and co-wrote the script, never shows the act of insertion, but we quickly understand what is going on. When a local baby disappears at the playground, Chip can no longer bear his guilt and attempts suicide, too ashamed at what he’s done to carry on. Fast forward nine years, our protagonist shifts to grizzled detective Russel Fox (Tyler Rice).
Fox is a stereotype. He always needs a shower, has an ex-wife he pines for who has moved on while he has stayed put, and attends his first AA meeting realizing he has a problem with booze. Matched with a sponsor, our boy Chip, the hairs on the back of Detective Fox’s neck stand up when he’s around Chip. There is something a bit off about this guy. In the interim, Chip has been quashing his butt-stuffing desires among AA addicts. He pretends he’s also an alcoholic, but the 12-steps seem to be working to keep his anal urges in check.
Detective Fox arrives at an office to investigate the disappearance of a 10 year-old boy during a hide-and-seek game and can’t believe the coincidence, Chip works there. This has the making of an Agatha Christie mind puzzle. How does a kid disappear from an office when you know he didn’t leave the building but there is no sign of a body? Here’s where Butt Boy loses what could have been at least an average serial killer thriller. Detective Fox concludes Chip swallowed the kid up his butt. There is no connecting the dots moment. No clues lead him to the crazy hypothesis that his police Captain refuses to listen to. The script requires Fox to reach this conclusion so the cat-and-mouse game can commence, but divine intervention regarding Chip’s unusual capabilities is the laziest way imaginable to move the plot forward.
The version of Butt Boy as a farce poking fun of police thrillers has yet to be made, but taking the subject matter serious is the way to go; otherwise, the flimsy idea could never bear the weight of an entire feature length film. With the slightest bit more elbow grease on the actual investigation, Butt Boy could almost be a passable entry in trying to attain cult classic status. As it is, Butt Boy isn’t even worth the dare to try and get the unwilling to watch it. There is a guy who can swallow very large things, including people, up his ass. Creative writing workshops have produced worse, but Cornack encases the out there idea with such well thought-out scenes and characters, it will surprise you how much you can see how much stronger the butt movie could have been.
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