{"id":42828,"date":"2026-08-30T19:56:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T02:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/?p=42828"},"modified":"2026-08-30T20:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T03:08:20","slug":"buddy-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/reviews\/movies\/buddy-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"BUDDY is a genuinely fresh concoction that breaks the comforting boundary between television and reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There comes a time in every child\u2019s life when certain lessons must be learned.\u00a0\u00a0Be kind. Share with others. Help your friends. Listen. Cooperate. Respect the people around you.<\/p>\n

And occasionally…<\/p>\n

Run like hell from the giant orange children\u2019s television character who is trying to kill you.<\/p>\n

Welcome to BUDDY.<\/p>\n

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Sick, twisted, hilariously funny, unexpectedly thoughtful, and gleefully drenched in blood, director Casper Kelly\u2019s BUDDY is one of those increasingly rare genre concoctions that feels genuinely fresh. It takes the comforting language of children\u2019s television, lovingly recreates it rather than merely parodying it, and then slowly begins pulling at the seams until the brightly colored fabric comes apart and something considerably darker crawls through.<\/p>\n

The easy shorthand will inevitably be \u201cR-rated Barney<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s also not particularly accurate.<\/p>\n

BUDDY reaches much farther back. Its real spiritual kinship lies with the earnest, brightly colored children\u2019s programming of the 1960s and \u201970s\u2014especially NEW ZOO REVUE<\/em>, with its anthropomorphic characters, songs, moral lessons, and unapologetically theatrical world-building\u2014along with the handmade fantasy of Sid and Marty Krofft. H.R. PUFNSTUF<\/em> is lurking somewhere in the family tree, as are countless locally produced children\u2019s programs built from painted flats, fuzzy costumes, puppets, catchy songs, and the sincere belief that television could entertain children while teaching them something.<\/p>\n

Kelly understands that sincerity.\u00a0\u00a0And that may be the smartest decision he makes.<\/p>\n

BUDDY doesn\u2019t begin by sneering at this kind of television. It embraces it. The square television framing, flattened imagery, bright overhead illumination, limited dimensionality, analog imperfections, songs, characters, sets, and relentlessly cheerful life lessons are played remarkably straight. For a while, you could almost convince yourself you had stumbled onto some forgotten piece of children\u2019s programming buried in an archive for forty years.<\/p>\n

Almost.<\/p>\n

Because something isn\u2019t quite right in BUDDY Park.<\/p>\n

And Josh knows it.<\/p>\n

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Of the children populating this seemingly benign little television universe, Josh is the one paying attention, questioning the world around him while the others more readily accept what they\u2019ve been given. Central to his curiosity is a book called WRINKLE IN REALITY, an unmistakable nod to Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> and something far more meaningful than a throwaway literary gag.<\/p>\n

Much like L\u2019Engle\u2019s children discovering worlds in which conformity can masquerade as order and safety, BUDDY begins raising questions about the reality its characters have been taught to accept. Josh senses the crack before anyone else does.\u00a0\u00a0Which makes what happens to Josh particularly upsetting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still mad at you, Casper Kelly.<\/p>\n

The children themselves are an intentionally uneven little collection. Wade follows suit on Josh’s concerns, especially when Josh’s beloved book is found in the trash can – – – covered in blood.\u00a0 Oliver is spectacularly annoying. Hannah practically drips sugary sweetness, a pint-sized Hannah Montana wannabe perfectly suited to this relentlessly cheerful television environment. Freddy initially makes less of an impression, although her importance grows considerably as Kelly starts revealing what BUDDY is actually doing.<\/p>\n

But Josh?\u00a0 Josh is thinking.\u00a0\u00a0That can be a dangerous habit in a world built upon everybody following the program.<\/p>\n

And then someone goes over the fence.<\/p>\n

That crossing is where BUDDY really begins revealing its hand, not merely narratively but cinematically.<\/p>\n

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Cinematographer Zach Kuperstein does outstanding work establishing and then dismantling the film\u2019s visual grammar. Inside the television show, light is broad, bright, frontal, and comparatively flat. Shadows have little purpose in a world where everything is supposed to be safe, legible, and happy. The constrained analog image reinforces the illusion.<\/p>\n

Cross the fence and everything changes.<\/p>\n

The palette shifts. Greens become darker, richer, verdant, alive. Shadows appear. Depth emerges. The world suddenly possesses dimension in a way BUDDY Park does not. Even the soundscape expands, moving beyond the deliberately limited sonic character of the television world.<\/p>\n

It feels as though the movie itself has escaped from television.<\/p>\n

Kuperstein\u2019s cinematography is especially impressive because these visual transformations never feel like tricks laid over the movie after the fact. They arise from geography, blocking, lighting, lensing, and camera placement. The visual rules change because our relationship to the world has changed.<\/p>\n

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More importantly, those changes form a progression rather than a succession of visual styles. As the characters\u2019 understanding of their world expands, so does Kuperstein\u2019s visual vocabulary. Flatness gives way to dimensionality; uniform illumination gives way to shadow; containment gives way to increasingly expansive environments; and eventually the reassuring softness of the television image gives way to a tactile clarity capable of revealing fur, blood, flesh, and viscera. The cinematography doesn\u2019t merely distinguish Kelly\u2019s different worlds. It charts our awakening to them.<\/p>\n

For anyone familiar with Kuperstein\u2019s work, that attention to spatial design comes as little surprise. Having previously spoken with the cinematographer about films including THE VIGIL<\/em> and THE CLIMB<\/em>, I know how methodically he thinks through the geography of a scene before determining how best to photograph it. He employed that kind of spatial mapping even on the largely exterior THE CLIMB<\/em>, while THE VIGIL<\/em> found him devising an elaborate system of apple boxes, lighting, and dolly track around a house to capture the nighttime horror unfolding within.\u00a0 Different films.\u00a0 Different environments.<\/p>\n