Ever look at the baby pictures of some loser or pictures of him or her from back in their pre-loser days and wonder just what the heck happened to them? “Hilda Humphrey” director Nick Lyons’ unapologetically distasteful look at a good life gone bad, graphically demonstrates how such unsavory transformations can occur.
Hilda (Xenia Seeberg) was a typical cute little girl, according to the film’s abrasive narrator Mrs. Filthy (Patrizia Moresco). Or at least she was until her parents (Thomas Sohsna and Yvonne Schramm) accidentally ran over her precious dog Lola. Traumatized, Hilda began a downward spiral, degenerating into Mrs. Filthy’s oft-repeated descriptive refrain, a “geeky, nerdy, rebellious, pimple-faced hell child slut with a drug problem, brainwashed Born Again Christian.”
Not exactly an auspicious profile on Matchmaker.com, in other words.
“Hilda Humphrey” is far too grating to be “enjoyed” in the traditional sense, but is a caustically amusing film nonetheless. It’s way over the top, as you might have deduced by now, but that somehow seems to fit this oddball short.
There’s no question that Ms. Humphrey’s life has veered off in the wrong direction. Brutally funny, if more than a little cruel, “Hilda Humphrey” graphically shows us how.
