Chip (director Tyler Cornack) has checked out of life. He has a thankless job in sales, a loveless marriage and even his spare time is filled with menial tasks like weeding and mowing around his small suburban home. Then, a trip to the doctor for a routine prostate check introduces Chip to an uncomfortable fact: he likes shoving things up his ass. Such is the premise of Butt Boy, which is endearing despite its flaws.
Cornack, who also co-wrote with Ryan Koch, does an effective job of relaying Chip’s dead inner life. His wife, Anne (Shelby Dash), is a prude, so Chip is forced to use outside objects to explore his new interest. Unfortunately, Chip can’t seem to sate himself. He starts with a bar of soap, then the brush for the dishes. However, things quickly go from experimental to downright strange. The family dog goes missing, and a neighborhood child disappears shortly after. We’re not shown exactly what is going on, but it is obvious that something bad has happened because Chip attempts to hang himself in his shed.
Nine years later, we’re introduced to Detective Russel Fox (Tyler Rice), a kind of super cop with a drinking problem who meets the alive and spry Chip at an AA meeting. Chip is assigned as Russel’s sponsor and the two attempt to get to know each other over coffee. But then Russel struggles to get ahold of Chip, and they don’t meet again until a child goes missing at Chip’s offices “take your child to work day” and Russel is sent to investigate.
The increasing absurdity of the storyline is an absolute delight and handled with excellent pacing just enough realism to offset the insanity. This, coupled with interesting technical credits, make Butt Boy a surprising amount of fun. The visuals are an exciting mixture of the mundane and the ultra-vibrant. Bright blues and pinks are used to great effect, and great lighting masks the evidence of a small budget. The score by electronic music group Feathers consistently adds tension. And the set design is intriguing, though the film’s time period is hard to establish. Landline telephones, indoor smoking and floppy disks make it appear as if the film takes place in a different time period, but it doesn’t really serve the plot.
These qualities are occasionally undermined by odd storytelling choices and missing context that feels necessary considering the subject matter. The connection between Chip and Russel is rather clunkily handled. Russel comments on how Chip is his mentor and someone he is supposed to be able to trust, but the film has actually shown us the opposite. A few later twists attempt to establish even more synchronicity between the two, but none of these feel earned or, more importantly, necessary. The filmmakers use alcoholism as a metaphor for Chip’s anal hunger, which is fine, but the nuances of the disease of alcoholism aren’t incorporated with the amount of care that should be used with such a matter.
Furthermore, the subject of race is poorly handled. There are a few bit parts by people of color, and the only appearance of multiple Latinx and African American characters is a crudely and violently filmed scene in which Russel and a bunch of other cops make a drug bust. And the film’s most important character of color is treated very poorly, in direct contrast to a white character of similar age and situation. This problem is compounded by how unnecessary these scenes are. If Cornack is trying to establish Russel as a good cop, there are plenty of other ways to do so, and the film would have benefitted from the aforementioned character being treated better.
Finally, homosexuality doesn’t come up at all. Obviously anal sex isn’t restricted to the gays, but men putting things up their butts is seen by many as the domain of gay men. But the danger here is that the act invites metaphorical thinking. Anal sex is such a demonstrably gay activity in terms of how it is historically presented on film that seeing it here, particularly seeing it used as potentially murderous invites the metaphor that anal sex is evil. It doesn’t seem like that is the point that Cornack is trying to make, but it is dangerously easy to get there.
Still, the creativity here outweighs the clunkiness and the boldness makes up for some of the omissions. Butt Boy is surprising, funny and disturbing, and establishes Tyler Cornack as a filmmaker and actor to watch.
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