DVD REVIEW: BUDDY HUTCHINS / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JARED COHN / SCREENPLAY: JARED COHN / STARRING: JAMIE KENNEDY, SALLY KIRKLAND, SARA MALAKUL LANE, DAVID GERE / RELEASE DATE: TBC
Writer and director Jared Cohn asks the audience to side with Buddy, a deadbeat man-child hell-bent on revenge for a situation he put himself in. One time rocker, Buddy is a recovering alcoholic toxic to all and everyone around him, even if his poorly-written daughter is too blind to see it.
Even from the start, the dull script and duller direction doesn’t leave the viewer wanting to go back two months and play catch up to what brought Buddy to be fighting off the police. Jamie Kennedy is a poor man’s Bill Paxton in the titular role, and he himself isn’t a bad actor, but headlining such a vile little film does him no favours.
There isn’t a strong female lead at all, in fact there’s a severe lack of female characters all round, and those involved are viewed with suspicion, slut shamed or regarded only as curiosities. Despite his film already being deeply misogynist, Cohn goes one step further and offends just about everyone, with both homophobia and racial stereotypes.
Unlike shocking titles like A Serbian Film or Cannibal Holocaust, this won’t become a cult classic. Indeed, if this was just a midlife crisis slasher, American Beauty with a chainsaw, we’d have an interesting title at hand, but Buddy Hutchins is symptomatic of straight white male entitlement, and a relic from a time we can’t pass soon enough.
The worst thing is, despite his selfish killing spree, Buddy has his cake and eats it. With its sociopathic script, lacklustre direction, and detestable main man, Buddy Hutchins is better left ignored.
Special Features: TBC
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