This surreal, Waters-esque comedy provides assholes galore
Peter Vack’s twisted directorial debut recently screened at Fantasia, and I don’t say this lightly, but Assholes quite possibly could be the strangest film you will see all year.
Assholes begins like your traditional mumblecore film focusing on recently sober, neurotic New Yorker, Adah Shapiro (Betsey Brown). She is seeing a psychotherapist and has weekly dinners with her well off parents. When she falls off the wagon at her brother’s house and starts sleeping with his best friend Aaron (Jack Dunphy), we are blessed with a complete and total descent into madness as the two get hooked on poppers, summon a shit demon, and then literally turn into giant assholes. The film channels John Waters in how you have these fearless actors who turn the film into a kind of performance art. Not just because of how far they are willing to go on screen to push the boundaries of good taste (and they go pretty far), but how they let their characters loose on a very unsuspecting public for some pretty awkwardly hilarious public situations.
Assholes is disgusting, disturbing and I have to say I loved every single damned minute of it. The film clocks in at a little over 70 minutes, and that is just enough to sustain the insanity without tiring out the audience. It’s also how the film is structured that lowers the audience’s defenses; as in the film’s first act, we’ve seen more than a few films that feature quirky aimless millennials in New York. But its just how Peter Vack subverts those expectations, by taking the narrative in the direction he does, that makes this film a joy to any of us who have suffered through a film directed by an asshole who thought he was Joe Swanberg. It’s also the title that has so many meanings, which are almost gleefully weaved throughout the film. We have figurative assholes, literal assholes, metaphorical assholes, and two people who are just plain obsessed with assholes that turn into actual assholes.
So many assholes!
It’s the comedic duo of Betsey Brown and Jack Dunphy at the center of the film that make this as enjoyable as it is. It’s their shared descent into addiction and their strangely touching co-dependent relationship that almost makes you root for them to get clean; but that wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining. Director Peter Vack has crafted a surreal comedic masterpiece that is absurd as it is a poignant statement on this genre in general. Not for the easily offended, Assholes is a glorious surprise that more than lives up to its title, giving the audience an experience they wont soon forget. If John Waters made a film today, I think it would be a lot like Assholes; Peter Vack flawlessly captures the perverse subversive humor reminiscent of Waters’ best.
