In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Friday 21 October 2016

THE GREASY STRANGLER [2016]

"How is this happening?" I found myself constantly wondering throughout writer/director Jim Hosking's vile demented comedy The Greasy Strangler.
A loathsome father & son go head to head for the love of a new woman in their life, while one of them develops a peculiar taste for smothering their naked body in layers of fatty grease and murdering people with his bare hands.
It's probably best described as Robert Crumb's Napoleon Dynamite in an Eraserhead-esque world.  Imagine that weird guy on the bus who reeks of sour milk and maple syrup that disturbingly stares at girls with a twisted grin on his face and you get an idea of how this film plays out.  It's about a half-hour too long which is a shame, because with a bit of tightening up and less repetition it might have made the perfect short film.
Not everybody is going to like this film, and with good reason, it's really fucking weird and unconditionally revolting.

3½ Salty Fun Blobs out of 5

6 comments:

budarc said...

Bullshit artist!

I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment. It's a hard movie to rate objectively. On one hand, like Yoga Hosers, this is a really hard film to defend. On the other hand, like Swiss Army Man, this is a movie that took me by surprise because it's something I've never seen before and I'm unlikely to see again. I've seen most Troma movies, all of Quentin Dupieux's films and Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories (in fact, anything on the Adult Swim 4am programming block), but this one was in a league of its own. It's a cult movie, so it'll only get better with each viewing.

Both this movie and Miss Peregrine made eyeballs look delicious though. Suddenly I have a hankering for fried eyeballs rolled in bread crumbs.

cuckoo said...

Those penises though.
XD I've never seen so much weird old man penis in my life.

And the wardrobe choices?!?! WTF was up that shit?
Especially Dad's Disco duds....I couldn't believe what I was looking at.

Hootie Tootie Disco Cuties indeed.

budarc said...

That old guy was especially creepy. He looked so familiar to me though. I looked at his filmography and the only one that stood out was The Video Dead (1987). I'm thinking of checking that one out and see how he got roped into this movie.

cuckoo said...

Yeah, the old guy seemed so familiar to me as well.
Turns out he's not anyone I've seen before. I guess the greasy old timer reminds me of someone.
Doc, maybe?

It's funny, all day yesterday my mind kept on wandering back to this film and all it's "whatthefuckery?"

budarc said...

Yeah, I must have been reminded of Doc and his giant mouse head.

I've still been thinking about the movie too. Fuck it, I'm giving it 4 painful car washes out of 5. A movie this strange and memorable deserves an extra bump up.

cuckoo said...

Bud,

It made Empire's Top #25 of 2016!!!

:rofldata: :rofldata: :rofldata:

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-films-2016/