By Robert Scucci | Published
Metaphors come in a myriad of shapes and sizes, and sometimes get downright ridiculous to get their point across. 2019 Butt boywritten and directed by Tyler Cornack, is a metaphor for addiction and compulsive behavior that smells a little like methane thanks to its absurd setup and delivery. I cannot, in good conscience, say that films like Butt boy are for everyone, but I feel the need to explain why such an incredibly stupid movie works better than one might expect.
A mystery about foreign objects and people disappearing from a man’s posterior that drives a detective to the brink of madness. Butt boy plays it straight like a neo noir crime thriller, but does it in the most spendthrift way you can imagine. For its ambition alone, it is worth the detour, but be careful, some sequences are too heavy to swallow.
A Hard Methane Mystery
Butt boy focuses on two main characters, Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack) and Russell Fox (Ryler Rice). Chip is a computer scientist who does an unsatisfactory job, and Russell is an alcoholic detective always on the verge of a relapse. After receiving his first prostate exam, Chip becomes obsessed with inserting objects into his rear end, arousing the suspicion of his family, friends and co-workers. His addiction starts small, involving television remotes and bars of soap, but quickly escalates when pets and other much less subtle artifacts start disappearing.
Chip first meets Detective Russell Fox at an AA meeting and becomes his sponsor. In Chip’s mind, as long as he receives and gives substance abuse counseling, it doesn’t matter where it comes from. Still unaware of the true depth of Chip’s behavior, Russell becomes embroiled in an investigation after an incident involving your children at work leads to the disappearance of Chip’s boss’s son. Suspecting that Chip is doing the unthinkable and using his butt as a means to absorb those around him, Russell mocks the police station and falls into a relapse.
A poignant and spicy approach to addictive behaviors
I’ll be the first to admit that films like Butt boy is aimed at a very specific audience and will not appeal to all viewers. It’s a completely absurd story, made even more ridiculous by everyone’s willingness to play it completely honestly. The police procedural elements may as well have been lifted from a David Fincher film, as incriminating floppy disks, plates, children and animals disappear up Chip’s butt while his AA godson, who happens to be an extremely talented detective, must piece together the mystery.
Ridiculousness aside, Butt boy offers a surprisingly straightforward view of addiction and how compulsive behaviors can take over if left unchecked or without a proper support network. Both Chip and Russell are flawed individuals grappling with problems they can’t solve on their own, and their stories converge in a relentless game of cat and mouse.
Russell, relying on good old police intuition, struggles to stay sober as he tracks down what he believes to be a notorious bandit. Chip, at the height of his addiction, fails to see how his actions affect not only his own well-being, but also that of those close to him.
It’s worth the trip, but be careful
Beneath his dark humor and deadpan speech, Butt boy uses its exaggerated premise to show two forms of addiction constantly at odds with each other. Russell’s struggles are universal and easy to ignore, because we all know someone who drinks a little too much and pretends they can quit, but never really does.
By channeling that same addictive energy into something as mindless as shoving things up your butt, the compulsion suddenly seems more serious because the physical commitment alone is impossible to ignore. Both men are at the mercy of their impulses and powerless to help each other by conventional means. As they sink deeper and deeper into this Chip hole, the fiction establishes that they are forced to learn hard lessons in a way that pleases neither sense.
Butt boy is streaming for free on Tubi.
