Hippo

Raising kids is always a scary process. In many ways, despite their increasing competence, it gets scarier when they hit their teens, because that’s also the time when they start engaging much more with the world on their own. It’s understandable that many parents feel an urge to keep them close, to shelter them and to give them cautionary advice. The less external input they have, though, the easier it is for small misunderstandings to become magnified in bizarre and even dangerous ways.

Adam (co-writer Kimball Farley) – better known as Hippo, probably because of the toy hippo which he has carried around since childhood and uses as a masturbatory aid – and Boglárka (Lilla Kizlinger), better known by the English version of her name, Buttercup – have always been odd kids. Buttercup was adopted from Hungary after suffering family misfortune there. Her new father – Hippo’s first – passed away not long ago. They’re home schooled and live a quiet life with their mother (Eliza Roberts). Hippo spends most of his time playing Body Harvest on the Nintendo 64 whilst Buttercup listens to Dvorak and immerses herself in her devotion to Jesus Christ. When their mother gives them a well-intentioned sex talk, however, Hippo seriously misinterprets her words. Convinced that his semen possesses incredible power, he’s horrified by the thought of getting in or on anybody he cares about, whilst at the same time beginning to develop megalomaniacal ideas.

Buttercup’s reaction is different. She doesn’t really care about sex (though she has a better understanding of what’s involved), but what she does want is a baby. Two options present themselves: find a cooperative paedophile on Craigslist, or seduce her brother. Over the course of the film she will attempt both, though nothing goes to plan. Whilst Hippo stands at the forefront of the film, constantly jostling for attention, Buttercup’s decisions drive the plot. This is not a film which trades on the depiction of sexual abuse. Instead, dark comedy negates such possibilities, ultimately leaving no room for ego. Scenes where one might expect something horrific deliver hilarity instead. Roberts is magnificent as the jaded mother, who has been institutionalised at least once in the past, holding her strange little family together without any real awareness of how wrong things are going.

Hippo’s aberrant beliefs and behaviours build up so slowly that it’s easy to think of him as just an ordinary bewildered teen. Director Mark Rapaport bides his time before providing an external perspective. In the meantime, the dynamic between doting mother, subdued but calculating sister and self-centred, massively entitled youth proves a fascinating one. William Babcock’s black and white cinematography emphasises the shadowy, hemmed-in nature of the family’s existence whilst flooding enraptured faces with beatific light. The whole thing is framed by a whimsical, all-American narration, perfectly delivered by Eric Roberts (Eliza’s husband).

Some of the humour here will affect you more deeply if you grew up in a strictly religious household, but there’s plenty of entertainment for everyone, and the film proved a real crowd pleaser at Fantasia 2023. For all their awfulness, its characters are endearing and even relatable. They’re richly drawn and the actors turn in confident performances which complement one another beautifully. Rapaport successfully strikes a balance between humanity and absurdity – with the implication that this is what happens when people voluntarily elect to persuade one another of the absurd. Nervous parents watching it will (one hopes) at least be assured that they could be doing worse.