VOD Review - Cubby

Mark Blane's directorial debut feels semi-autobiographical in various ways. Blane lives in Brooklyn, New York, having come there from Indiana. His protagonist here is also a Brooklynite who's a transplant from the same Midwestern state. Both Blane and his protagonist are artists. Yet, despite some, parallel, personality quirks, that might be where the similarities stop. Blane's protagonist comes to New York with not much of a plan. He's probably representative of a lot of artists who come to the Big Apple on not much but a whim and eagerness or exuberance to experience the liberal and metropolitan life that is New York City. That whim is just a drive and compulsion that brings the artist here and it is then up to that person to find a way to survive with some being more lucky than others. Yet, Blane's purpose here isn't just to depict the struggling artist, which is an oft-used cliché. He also wants to say something about sexuality along side something about the connection to children or childhood experiences and how the confluence of those two things can be awkward or sheer unacceptable.

Blane himself stars as Mark Nabel, a young guy from Indiana who is most likely in his early to mid 20's. At the start of the film, Mark's mom is driving him from the Hoosier state to New York. Mark has a friend from Indiana who came to New York years ahead of him, probably right out of high school, whereas Mark stayed in Indiana. Now, he's joining his friend who lives in a collective, or shared apartment space. Mark has lied to both his mom and roommates about having a job to be able to afford to live there. Luckily, Mark is able to get hired as a babysitter for a wealthy couple in Brooklyn.

Joseph Seuffert plays Milo Tao, a 6-year-old boy who is the son of that aforementioned wealthy couple. He's a smart and sweet, as well as very playful child. Mark immediately takes a liking to the little boy and has no problem taking care of him. Mark has to drop off and pick up Milo from school. He also takes Milo to the park and playground. They even hang out together in various spots in Brooklyn, as well as at Milo's home. When Milo is bullied, Mark defends him almost ferociously. Mark even claims to have fallen in love with the little boy and the little boy expresses love for Mark in return.

However, Mark's relationship with Milo starts to seem problematic. At first, Milo's parents are irritated because Mark shows up late to pick Milo up from school. The reason is due to Mark taking some drugs, hallucinating and passing out in the park. As time goes on, Mark develops an attachment to Milo and starts doing things that push the line. One time, he paints Milo's nails. Another time, he does drawings with Milo, but, inadvertently Mark leaves a male nude drawing in Milo's bedroom. Obviously, Milo's parents are somewhat progressive, but even they draw a line. Mark's innocent mistakes or innocent activities might not seem to be so innocent but a way of exploring or achieving something in Milo's childhood that Mark didn't necessarily get in his.

Patricia Richardson (Strong Medicine and Home Improvement) co-stars as Peggy Nabel, the mother to Mark. Her presence and in fact her nagging would suggest that she has been nothing but supportive of her son. It's implied that she knows that Mark is gay and accepts it completely. If Mark was denied anything in Indiana, regarding his sexuality or way of being, it was probably from his father, his school or something else. It wasn't from her. Peggy is constantly calling and fussing when she's not watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She's a light and funny presence. It's a shame that Blane couldn't have weaved her into the dramatic story more, perhaps to give us more of an idea of where Mark originated.

Rodney Richardson (Evil and FBI), no relation to Patricia Richardson, also co-stars as Russell, a young black guy who shows an interest in Mark. It's not sure what he does for work, but he runs a book club with his aunt. Mark seems attracted, but Mark would rather spend time with Milo. It also seems as if Mark would rather spend time with his hallucination, which came to him in a drug-addled fit.

Christian Patrick (Interior. Leather Bar.) plays Leather-Man. He's not a super-hero like Iron Man. He's the aforementioned hallucination in Mark's mind. He looks like he just left the Folsom Street Fair, a festival in San Francisco that's home to the BDSM community. The leather culture is a subset of that community, which consists of people liking to dress in tight leather outfits or revealing outfits made of leather. He's a sexy, mature man, probably in his late 40's or early 50's. He probably represents a kink or fetish that Mark has, but, besides having that secret kink, Blane's film doesn't do anything substantive with Leather-Man. It's a cinematic device akin to the Hitler character in Jojo Rabbit (2019), but Blane doesn't utilize that cinematic device in any significant way, except for slight titilation.

Leather-Man's presence perhaps underscores the child-like nature that Mark possesses. When Mark is with Leather-Man, Mark is the submissive, whereas the Leather-Man is the dominant or the person that tells him what to do and even the one who scolds Mark in ways that are obviously sexual and not disciplinary. Yet, it could be perceived as a parent-child relationship with Leather-Man being the parent and Mark being the child. Mark is living in New York and has a lot of responsibilities thrust upon him, even that of parental responsibilities over Milo. Yet, Mark is still behaving in a lot of ways like a child too. He less acts like a parent to Milo and more as if he wants to be a contemporary or the same as Milo in ways.

Despite being set in the present, Blane's film is shot on Super 16 mm, which gives the whole thing a throwback feeling to the 1980's or even 90's. It's not clear if Blane is inspired by that time period. The look is very much a grainy one and perhaps Blane simply wanted his film to have a more tactile feeling to it. Perhaps, this is to correspond to the tactile nature of children. The title of this film refers to an item in kindergarten. Perhaps, it's to accentuate the sensuality of how Mark is experiencing things.

Not Rated but contains language, nude drawings and sexual situations.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 24 mins.

Available on Dekkoo.