Panic Fest Film Festival Coverage
Hippo review.
If Wes Anderson had a nightmare.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Hippo
Directed by Mark H. Rappaport
Written by Mark H. Rappaport and Kimball Farley
Starring Kimball Farley, Lilla Kizlinger, Eliza Roberts, Jesse Pimental, Vann Barrett and Eric Roberts
Hippo Review
Perhaps it’s unfair to compare Mark H. Rappaport’s Hippo to the work of Wes Anderson. It’s the name that goes through your mind while watching it, however. In fairness, it probably goes through your mind whenever you watch a uniquely styled film about eccentric people acting in a precocious manner. If we go with this as a starting point…Hippo would best be described as Wes Anderson having a nightmare. No amount of darkness is going to stop this dark comedy from keeping to its singularly dismissive tone.
Hippo is a coming-of-age story about Adam (Kimball Farley), also known as Hippo, and his stepsister Buttercup (Lilla Kizlinger). They struggle to navigate a lack of education and, in Hippo’s case, a conspiracy laden mind. When Buttercup wants to explore her sexuality…Hippo finds himself confronted by a host of problems he is unequipped to handle.
Hippo was shot in black and white. It’s a style choice, sure…but it also comments on the way that Hippo views the world. He doesn’t see nuance…only shades of gray. Self-centered and lost in his own world…unable to trust (or love) anyone or anything. A downer of a lead character…but one that gives the film a unique sensibility and opportunities for dark humor. Buttercup is painted by the same colors…but, unlike her stepbrother, craves more.
Buttercup sets her sights on her emotionally disconnected stepbrother. When he brushes off her advances…she turns to Craigslist. Set in the late 90s…she is unaware of the door being opened to creeps through this tactic. Enter Darwin (Jesse Pimentel), the creep who walks through the door. Darwin is an older man trolling for fun with young women. Though, he points out, Buttercup is technically of legal age, so this is all above board. He charms their mother (Eliza Roberts). Hippo is less convinced.
Eric Roberts serves as our narrator. In case the comparisons to Wes Anderson films weren’t strong enough…the narrator serves the same purpose here. Hippo derives its laughs from the same places that Anderson’s filmography does. Peculiar detachment. It works here, in part, to the extra layer of darkness. The bright, colorful worlds Anderson plays in are stripped bear with purpose. The laughs are different, darker than you’ll find in the former’s work. Not that Hippo doesn’t draw from some familiar wells. Almost as if this was an experiment to see what happens when you take the darker moments of Anderson’s work and push it to an even bleaker place.
What happens is that it delivers a funny movie. Hippo’s style and committed performances work in tandem with a script full of biting humor from unexpected places. The humor often comes from a nihilistic place. The movie will amass a surprising body count by the time the story is over. While the comedy doesn’t come directly from death…it often comes from the reaction to it. Disposable and less important to Hippo’s mind than who is cooking his breakfast.
Usually, movies like Hippo struggle from its use of an unlikable protagonist. You aren’t supposed to like the titular character…but it is ok to be amused by him. Buttercup is more likable and gets a strong amount of focus. With Hippo unwilling (or unable) to change…her quest to move forward as a person is the inciting incident of the story. It’s the only action we’re really given to follow. It works. Especially when Hippo wields his trust crossbow and becomes more and more of the film’s antagonist.
Hippo won’t be for everyone. It is a very funny movie in the darkest of ways. Those who enjoy a bleakness to their laughs will find a lot to like in this stylish, committed film. Performances are strong (and interesting) across the board. There is a coolness to the coldness…and a dark beauty to its gray world.
Scare Value
Hippo is a very funny movie in some very dark ways. It mines humor from bleak places…and does so consistently. If you enjoy this style of movie…it’s a strong entry in the genre. If you want to see a Wes Anderson-like movie fueled by only its darkest impulses…this is the movie for you. With surprising moments effortlessly brushed off by its dismissive lead…and a quiet determination to find light in a dark world, Hippo is more than a Wes Anderson knockoff. Even if it will struggle to escape the comparison.
