{"id":5722,"date":"2015-09-03T00:59:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T23:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=5722"},"modified":"2015-09-03T01:08:51","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T00:08:51","slug":"buttercup-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/09\/03\/buttercup-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Buttercup Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Buttercup<\/a>
Buttercup Bill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 4 September 2015

\nDistributor:<\/B> Trinity Film

\nDirectors:<\/B> Émilie Richard-Froozan, Rémy Bennett

\nWriters:<\/B> Émilie Richard-Froozan, R\u00e9my Bennett

\nCast:<\/B> émy Bennett, Evan Louison

\nUSA 2014

\n96 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A young girl in a white dress runs out from the woods into a field. Children play games in a hallway, chasing each other, laughing. A girl is spun around in a field, her eyes covered with a yellow strip of fabric. A boy in a cowboy hat stands, smiling, on a wooded path. The meaning of these images is only gradually revealed, but they create an air of tense mystery that persists throughout the striking, compelling Buttercup Bill<\/I>. Dream-like, elliptical, ambiguous, the debut feature by co-writers and directors Émilie Richard-Froozan and Rémy Bennett is a sun-drenched, erotically charged, Southern Gothic romance about two childhood friends, Patrick and Pernilla, and their cruel, sadistic, yet loving mutual obsession. It\u2019s a film about desperately craving something that you can \u2013 and should \u2013 never have. <\/p>\n

Buttercup Bill<\/I> starts with the death of a woman named Flora. Pernilla \u2013 her friend, her sister, it\u2019s never quite clear \u2013 is distraught. Her first act is to leave \u2018Patrick\u2019 a phone message, begging for him to come to her. She delivers a poem at the funeral, before descending into a spiral of drugs, alcohol, sex. She wanders drunkenly through neon-lit streets. She leaves more messages. She finds Patrick, finally, in Louisiana, where they\u2019re reunited, their murky past soon inserting itself into the present.<\/p>\n

The husky-voiced R\u00e9my Bennett (Pernilla) and Evan Louison terrifically capture the damaged pair, who are like brother and sister, husband and wife, the sexual tension, and jealousy, always palpable. Louison portrays the softly spoken Patrick with a wide-eyed, innocent charm, a good Southern boy. But the problem is that he isn\u2019t good. Or at least not, so he believes, when he\u2019s with Pernilla. Their relationship is intimate, affectionate, yet they continually (especially in one memorable scene) inflict physical and emotional pain on each other, and others. And, as the identity of Buttercup Bill is revealed, and snatched glimpses of the boy and girl become ever darker, it\u2019s clear that their sadistic streak has haunted Patrick and Pernilla since childhood.<\/p>\n

In exploring this twisted romance, Richard-Froozan and Bennet have also, refreshingly, if darkly, created an honest, never gratuitous glimpse into female desire. Pernilla is in control of her own urges, an active participant in the games that they play with the people in Patrick\u2019s life \u2013 his best friend, a possible girlfriend. A scene in a strip club is seen from the female gaze, Pernilla as fascinated by the dancers as Patrick, Patrick as turned on by Pernilla\u2019s desire as his own. It\u2019s a reminder of just how rare it is to see a film that was not only written and directed, but also produced, by women (Sadie Frost and Emma Comley, and their Blonde to Black production company). <\/p>\n

Like the relationship it lays bare, Buttercup Bill<\/I> is tender, playful, moving and deeply disturbing. It\u2019s beautifully shot, Lynchian in feel, with a vibrant palate imbued with the colours of the south, while the heat of the sun, the moisture in the air, are almost palpable. Although there are definitely moments that feel too staged, too self-aware, the overall originality of the filmmaking, the quality of Will Bates\u2019s atmospheric score, and the sheer forces of nature that are Patrick and Pernilla, make Buttercup Bill<\/i> a stand-out of the independent scene. <\/p>\n

Sarah Cronin<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/b><\/p>\n