Rich Ronat’s first feature-length film, The Clutterbucks, is a delightful skewering of the Damn panic of 2021. Set during a near-future outbreak in 2075 of the ‘pizzle-wang virus’, The Clutterbucks wishes to demonstrate what the heightened political stratification will ultimately devolve to. Gone are the red and blue states. The country has experienced a second depression and a second civil war. Unlike the conflict of the 1860s, however, the cobalt (blue) states remain a part of the scarlet (red) states. Culturally and technologically, the two halves of America are fully divided.
For example, the Scarlet states have rejected tech advances past the 1980’s. In El Paso, TX you won’t find smartphones, the internet, or any device more advanced than the giant blocky Television sets of yore. The Cobalt states have fully embraced tech advances, and even possess colonies across the solar system. Such is the unbridgeable divide in America in The Clutterbucks.
The children live in Cobalt, California. Billy (Brit Scott) has been playing college football, and stands to be drafted into the NFL. He has an older cougar of a girlfriend, Christina Fernbottom (Jacy King), who is a horticulturist with a specialty in marijuana. This upsets the parents, Rufus (Brian Gross) and Twyla (Laura Vale), no end. To make matters messier, Madison (Kayla Raelle) Clutterbuck has given up drinking and joined A.A. This leads to a madcap tale of Twyla’s younger brother Charlie (Murat Montero), and how A.A. ruined his life as a professional impersonator of Bobo the Clown.
“Culturally and technologically the two halves of America are fully divided.”
The situation explodes when all these people are trapped in their house for at least six months, while the pizzle-wang virus is figured out. Complicating a fraught and perilous situation, Billy announces that he has chosen to quit football as he is clearly losing his cognitive ability. Secondarily, he has impregnated Christina and wants to be the most competent parent he can be for their nascent child. The only person who attempts to placate this fractious dynamic is the youngest Clutterbuck Adalynn (Bixby Baker). Adalynn is a sweet child who possesses a foul-mouthed puppet whom Adalynn employs to tell it like it is.
Dear Reader, The Clutterbucks is hilarious. Twyla is the conductor of drama and crap. She is among the best developed bad Moms one has ever witnessed. She comes off about twice as diabolical as my own mother. And that’s not an easy feat, as my mom was a boomer – the first generation to out and out hate their children. Twyla sees her kids in a very pragmatic way. They exist to make her happy, and to provide for her as she ages. This sounds reasonable until you realize she would sacrifice any of the three to get what she wants.
Rich Ronat has created a wonderfully dysfunctional and politically stratified family in The Clutterbucks. This political allegory is hella funny. It may be that The Clutterbucks is a harbinger of biting, dark, satirical humor that is now possible in America. I for one, welcome such films. Ultimately the Clutterbucks is both a hoot and a holler. Seek it out if you enjoy demented Thanksgiving films.
"…wonderfully dysfunctional"
