Bugs

//Revelation Film Festival Review//

The best way to describe Bugs would be Stand by Me by way of Harmony Korine. Shot like a 90's music video from an obscure heavy metal band, Bugs is a black and white ode to fleeting youth and the monotony of teenage years after the discovery of a dead schoolgirl barely rattles a suburban town.

While it doesn't posses Korine's madcap boundary-pushing energy, Bugs does manage to capture something universal and deeply troubling about the apathetic generation. Where it struggles is filling its almost 90 minute run time and as the story becomes less structured it gives the impression that the film might have worked better as a short. Still, shot for a reported $20 000, Bugs is an impressive micro-budget debut feature from writer/director Jack Moxey.