Fils de plouc
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Mother Schmuckers is currently available for VOD rental.
DIRECTED BY: Harpo Guit, Lenny Guit
FEATURING: Maxi Delmelle, Harpo Guit
PLOT: Issachar and Zabulon must find the family dog or be evicted.
COMMENTS: In keeping with the spirit of the film, this will be my one and only single-paragraph review. Anything beyond that first sentence would be utterly unperceived by the lead characters, two brothers who crash from one chaotic outburst to another without any thought beyond the next maddening moment. Trigger warnings are appropriate, I think, for a film that takes such impressive leeway with animal well-being: violence, sex, cooking, all in the efforts to retrieve the family dog. Mother Schmuckers will leave you addled, as two semi-feral variants of Dumb and Dumber‘s Harry and Lloyd crash around a Belgian city causing havoc whilst thwacking each other. The French title, translating roughly into “slobby sons” or “sons of a slob,” is more apt than the English version’s play on a common phrase. I’ll spare you my rambling list of shockers and let the still above do half of the heavy lifting, and the following remark do the rest: the opening scene has our boys frying up shit for breakfast. Mother Schmuckers has an audience, and although it wasn’t me—and probably isn’t you, either—I will admit that I was never bored, and occasionally laughed aloud despite myself. Beyond that, Guit and Guit are to be commended for somehow securing funding for this manic outing, even if a major backer was an incorporated Belgian tax dodge—er, shelter. Through the wincing and guilt-smirking, this writhing nonsense left me shuddering, “What the schmuck?”
At the time of publication, Mother Schmuckers is in limited theatrical release, with video-on-demand scheduled to arrive on March 15.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
Having seen this now, I’d be tempted to use a “Beware” rating if it were my review. Mostly for content, but also because it just isn’t a very good movie, even for a grossout comedy. I didn’t see any chemistry or uniqueness in the Guit’s double act, and I never developed the necessary affection for them to convert them into anti-heroes instead of supremely annoying jackasses. Perhaps the unpredictability of the plot is the only thing that makes it watchable and saves it from that “Beware.”
I was hoping that me having volunteered for it would spare you the hassle. I feel my remarks (limited though they are) convey your sentiments, just that “Beware” is so rarely dropped that it must have slipped under my radar.
(Or perhaps I was so hell-bent on getting the movie & review experience over-with that I didn’t want to do the finicky work digging up the pertinent graphic.)