Bums

Year: 2005
Director: Brett Butler, Jason Butler
Stars: Brett Butler, Jason Butler, Tammy Gerus
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Substance Production
Running Time: 75Mins
Review Rating: 5 Stars
Official Website: http://www.subprod.com/

Brett and Jason Butler are a directing team out of Toronto, Canada, who directed Confusions of an Unmarried Couple last year. The film has been positively reviewed on various websites including this one here. I highly recommend you check this film out, as it's being sold on their website. Before that movie came out, Jason and Brett Butler had a film that was shot in 2005 called Bums. Their second film took eleven days to shoot in and around Toronto, Canada.

Bums follows a group of three men and three women in one day's time. They are searching for love and happiness. Soon, their relationships begin to blur into each other and soon it beings to produce love, laziness and all sorts of foolishness and shenanigans. It also provides fun and a perceptive look at life and relationships from two different points of view.

I wish Hollywood would take note and make these types of sex comedies where dialogue and acting takes precedent over gross out humor that’s seen in many of these types of comedies. Brett Butler and Jason Butter are two of the best directors in the independent /underground film scene today. They seem to do a very good job with very limited resources, as this is the second film of theirs that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing. Bums is a very funny and entertaining film. The humor in this film was very good. It was timed very well and wasn’t stupid or repetitive. Their screenplay does a great job getting both the male’s and female’s perceptive of being in a relationship, which made the film very interesting to watch. It’s something that you don’t see many films do these days. Those films always tend to focus on one perceptive of a relationship. The directors also used the split screen method, a couple of times during the film. I actually enjoyed this because it keeps the viewers attention, when there’s lots of dialogue being used. Sometimes without it, the mainstream audience tends to be bored.

The acting was very good in this film. All the actor’s performances were entertaining. The actors were very engaged in their roles, as their twenty-something characters were interesting characters, instead of the annoying and dumb characters you see in these types of films. They seemed to really enjoy their roles. They injected personality into the characters and seemed to gel with each other onscreen very well. The characters weren’t boring or formulaic by no stretch of the imagination.

This is a film that I would strongly recommend to all Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater fans. You will enjoy this little film. Bums is a very funny and insightful look at relationships from both points of view.

Dvd Extras Include:

Commentary from directors and stars Brett Butler and Jason Butler
Outtakes
Photo Gallery
Music Video
Bums Trailer
Alive and Lubricated Trailer

You can pick up the film at http://www.subprod.com/

“Confusions of an Unmarried Couple”
2007
*** out of ****
Director: Brett M. Butler, Jason G. Butler
Cast: Brett M. Butler, Naomi M. Johnson

“You know, I could probably sue this whole corporation right now for sexual harassment. You're only making me refill the napkin holders because of my firmly held beliefs on the subject of ass to mouth.” – Jeff Anderson, “Clerks 2”

Remember that movie that came out last year that starred Jennifer Aniston and Vince “Fuck you, I’m awake” Vaughn? Yeah, I pretty much hated that movie. It was like Christ struck me and said that movie would clarify that I would never get married. I don’t want to be stuck in a Vince Vaughn movie, and neither should you.

However, there is an independent film that is sweeping independent airwaves called “Confusions of an Unmarried Couple” that grabbed my attention since I first heard of it. These Butler brothers are helmed as the new Kevin Smiths of the millennium, and “Confusions of an Unmarried Couple” is said to be their best work. And after “Confusions” ended, I began asking myself for more Butler Brothers. This ain’t perfect, but why the hell is THIS not in the theaters instead of “Tyler Perry’s New Nightmare?” What kind of a world do we live in that we let Tyler Perry put out MORE of the SAME movies? It’s no fair.

The tagline for “Confusions of an Unmarried Couple” reads “Meet Dan. Meet Lisa.” By the time we meet these characters, we don’t want to see them go. They’re not the most believable characters, but their situation is the most believable. The Butlers capture a risky subject and turn it into a fun and hilarious dark comedy that Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater fans would have geek-gasms over. Your new obsession will be the Butler Brothers, and your new favorite movie will be this.

And like the tagline suggests, we meet Dan (Brett M. Butler). About six months ago, the poor guy walks in on his fiancée Lisa (Naomi M. Johnson) going one-on-one with a high-school girlfriend. Still distraught about that one terrible night, he goes to pick up his things at her apartment. Inside, he runs into her and then they argue. That’s as far as you’ll get where plot goes from.

But while that’s not a BAD thing, the movie tells its story through its dialogue and emotion. One of the biggest things to notice is when they tell us what they saw with the relationship. The characters are two different characters, a lot like Apatow’s “Knocked Up.” Our main-man Dan is a stoner, a sex addict, and a drinker. His ex-girlfriend was the complete opposite of what he was. This is what would happen if “Knocked Up” didn’t work out, and if one of the characters didn’t get pregnant. But hell, even I can’t complain about this movie. While it’s not one of the best movies that I’ve seen, it was certainly a joy to watch, especially when I’m just looking for a romantic comedy that doesn’t rely on hot guys and boobs instead of ones that do. It would be a long shot to say that out of ALL of the indie movies that I’ve seen that this is the best, but it’s probably one of the best romantic comedies that I’ve seen in a long time.

Look closely to “Confusions of an Unmarried Couple,” and you will see something familiar. Does it ring a bell to you yet? Think of Kevin Smith’s brainchild and then you get the cult classic “Clerks.” If you have seen “Clerks,” you will know that the movie is all… talk… NOTHING else. They ramble on about their lives so much that if you weren’t used to this type of thing, you would hate that movie. But Kevin Smith divided the scenes into chapter-like breaks that described the situations that were going on.“Confusions” uses this same tactic, but instead of just leaving us with a black screen and a big word in white, we get a picture, a word, and a clip of the main characters explaining their relationship to a video camera. This works just because the directors know that we don’t want to watch the same exact people arguing about the same exact problems in their relationship. What’s better than a video that can be posted on YouTube?

“Confusions” is hilarious, but you won’t notice it until the second watch. It starts as a drama, and it leads you to believe that it’s a drama, but once the jokes start coming in, you don’t know if you are supposed to laugh or not. I liked it better the second watch than I did when I watched it the first time. That’s the only problem with the film, but it’s a big problem with that. If it wasn’t for the change in genre so quickly, it may have gotten off with a half or whole star higher.

The two member cast, like I said before, may not be TOTALLY believable, but they show their talents. Brett M. Butler is right into his character, and it’s funny because he’s so good at it. He may be the guy that you may relate to. There’s a scene in this movie where he says that he would go gay with Jack Black, and it’s funny, because while looking at him, I imagined him as Jack Black’s best friend and heterosexual life-mate. Johnson is an amazing and very talented actress, who should look into bigger roles in bigger movies.

“Confusions of an Unmarried Couple” is a great look at unhappy relationships. The situation is believable and the dialogue is hilarious (and very, very raunchy) as well. See this movie as soon as you possibly can. It will be worth your time and you will thank me for it.