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Buttercup Bill

2/10

Stars: Remy Bennett, Evan Louison

Director: Remy Bennett, Emilie Richard-Froozan

Fresh from casual sex at one of New York's seedier bars, Pernilla (croaky-voiced Bennett) flees to the Deep South and her childhood sweetheart Patrick (sleepy-eyed Louison). Sexual deviants both, they play games with each other, sink gallons of whisky, strike and burn each other and have partial sex with third parties to excite the non-participant.

It's all presumably to assuage guilt over a deadly sin involving another childhood friend who, as an adult, has just hanged herself. Patrick seems to have also found Jesus, angering Pernilla, although that doesn't stop him visiting strip clubs and indulging in heavy-duty smoking, drinking and sex.

This is the kind of virtually plotless, arty sex film that gives indie cinema a bad name, and the self-admiring performances are no help: Bennett's squeaky voice is an annoying distraction and Louison's soft tones scarcely better. The atmosphere, languorous and sweaty, is well captured by the directors, but scenes of characters doing little or nothing are held far too long.

(There is no copyright date on this film).

David Quinlan

USA 2014. UK Distributor: Trinity. Colour by Nice Dissolve.
97 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 2, Swearing 3.

Review date: 30 Aug 2015