2023 HOLLYSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW!
Joey Rossi, aka Joey Muscles (Matthew Leone) is a competitive bodybuilder from New Jersey. He’s struggling to reach his goals, and it seems that he’s plateaued. As a last-ditch effort to achieve everything he’s working toward he turns to steroids. Blue Boy is the story of the massively confident Joey who, behind closed doors, struggles with his image. It’s now or never, and his emotions are getting the best of him.
Blue Boy is a story that is a brilliant reflection of the world in which we live blown up to ridiculous proportions. As I sat here watching Joey prepare, obsessively, for his next show, I thought to myself: “why does anyone care about this stuff?” Then I thought about my content–and that’s a question I ask myself literally every day. I immediately found a connection between Joey and his passion and me and mine. From that moment forward I understood the point of Blue Boy–even if it doesn’t always land as planned.
Emotionally the film is all over the place, and it sort of struggles to pick and stick to one tone. It jumps from humor to drama at a moments notice, and I’m not sure that the way in which Blue Boy is developed in this way is as effective as Writer-Director Tyler Riggs had hoped. The film becomes a tad frumpy as a result of the constant back and forth and the inability to establish a single, cohesive tone. However, in terms of reflecting the real world, I think it does a good job. From the standpoint of a viewer, the issues with the tone is just that–an issue, but the film does a wonderful job of connecting with society as a whole.
We are plagued by a society that does a better job of expressing themselves through social media than they do in person–and the way they present themselves online is not always an accurate reflection of who they truly are. Blue Boy is a somewhat silly telling of this reality–constantly revisiting the idea of the fractured human psyche. In the moments of drama, of actual drama (not the overexaggerated bits), viewers get a chance to catch a glimpse of reality, to be sucked into the drama, and to self reflect.
The majority of Blue Boy is overdone. Overdramatic, overacted, and more–and the majority of the film fails to hit the mark. The film has the best of intentions for sure, hoping to reach viewers every step of the way–but it’s only a select few moments when it’s actually able to achieve what it’s set out to do.
Blue Boy is a bit all over the place in terms of tone, and I’m not sure that the comedy ever really works as a result of it jumping around so much. Furthermore, there are moments when comedy and drama are forced together to create something sort of frumpy and fractured–incapable of reaching viewers in those moments. However, when Blue Boy buckles down and focuses on emotion and the human psyche, it’s more than capable of reaching viewers. I wish the journey felt more cohesive, better developed really–but all in all, regardless of its issues, Blue Boy will likely reach viewers and speak to them.
Written & Directed by Tyler Riggs.
Starring Matthew Leone, Marie Leone, Guy Del Corso, Victor Martinez, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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