Like an even more depraved episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, if they did a Belgian spin-off starring the McPoyle twins, crossed with the no-holds-barred slapstick comedic absurdity of Dumb and Dumber and the fourth wall-breaking, ultra-low-budget shenanigans of The Eric Andre Show, Mother Schmuckers is tasteless and offensive and grotesque. And it had me cackling in no short measure.
In modern-day Brussels, two extremely low-functioning, dirty brothers, Issachar and Zabulon, live with their prostitute mother Cashmere in the red light district. It opens with them eating poop and doesn’t get any less scatological from there. Barely able to function on their own, their lives are a series of happy accidents and zany misadventures that sees them cross paths with a litany of the city’s scum and villainy including pimps, cops, magicians, dancers, and *ahem* animal enthusiasts. When the incorrigible duo loses the family dog, Cashmere presents them with an ultimatum: recover her beloved January Jack or live on the streets.
Written, directed by and starring Harpo and Lenny Guit, Mother Schmuckers is the kind of batshit crazy comedy that erupts from a geyser of bottled up biazarro energy. And this is what we have in the Guit bros. Combining the styles of The Three Stooges, John Waters, and 90s Jim Carrey comedy, the Guit brothers’ particular brand of comedy is like an unhinged stream of consciousness that is both entirely unpredictable and yet always reliably going to the most immoral and grotesque places imaginable.
And buyer beware. The film Belgian film to be selected for Sundance’s Midnight section also comes with a “Not suitable for audiences under 18” warning. And for good reason. There’s prostitution, kidnapping, dognapping, sexual assault, beastiality, animal abuse, necrophilia and a whole bunch of other delights sure to absolute horrify anyone even removable offendible. Mother Schmuckers runs the gamut of bad taste with such freeform, spitball zeal that you rarely have time to be repulsed before it’s onto the next uproarious moral blackhole.
In the pole positions, Harpo and Lenny Guit deliver a mix of awkward, surrealist, gonzo physical comedy that either will have you helplessly giggling or almost immediately repulsed and annoyed. There’s very little middle ground and viewers will quickly find which side of the aisle they belong to.
Mother Schmuckers operates with its own brand of warped sitcom logic – a mash of cringe, gross-out, surrealist, and anti-comedy – that means no situation is too extreme, no plot arc too unthinkable. But the Guit bros somehow tether it all together, managing a plot that isn’t as completely random and freewheeling as the Tim and Eric sketches that inspired it even if it does leave the audience pinballing from scene to scene with no idea of what new depravity lays in wait around the corner. Even the extremely brief, inexplicable appearance from French mainstay Mathieu Amalric as the twin’s father feels random and preposterous (particularly with how low budget the project is) and yet inspires a chuckle. I fully expect most people to hate it but those that are in on the joke just won’t be able to stifle their amusement.
CONCLUSION: This ultra-low-budget Belgian comedy is a tasteless gas that regularly makes light of that which is most likely to offend. Writers, directors, and stars Harpo and Lenny Guit are almost definitely an acquired taste but their weirdo depravity left me giggling nonstop.
B-
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