Vulcanizadora ★★1/2

Availability: Very limited availability in theaters; no streaming at this time. Pre-order available at Fandango at home (formerly Vudu), but no indication of when the orders might be filled. See JustWatch here for future viewing options. The movie website is here.

Fun at the Beach

“Vulcanizadora” is yet another contribution to the current catalog of films about white, middle-aged male angst, including the very recent “Friendship,” but with its own take—bizarre, comedic, and horrific.

Two middle-aged guys, unhappy with their lives, head off on a camping trip harboring a mysterious purpose. In this buddy film, one buddy, Derek, does all the talking and acting and, laden with gear, camping. The other buddy—morose, now and then hostile, mostly uncommunicative, with no gear and the “wrong pants”—simply trudges along behind. Joel Potrykus, an independent filmmaker with a flair for the odd, existential, and challenging, is Derek. His long-time collaborator, Joshua Burge, is the silent Marty.

Writer, director, and actor Joel Potrykus portrays Derek as clueless, goofy, and socially inept. He does have the camping gear.

Derek’s angst derives from his divorce and his ex-wife’s efforts to keep him away from his 6-year-old son, Jeremy (Potrykus’s son, Solo Potrykus), replacing “Daddy” with a new partner. Marty’s is a result of some criminal acts he’s committed, which seem to include arson, arson that might have done damage, even hurt someone. Neither backstory is explored in depth (hence the “some,” “seem,” “might,” and “someone” in the previous sentence). Potrykus’s script is all about the men’s current emotional states.

---

Rather than the fastidious, manic, disturbed human being that writer and director Potrykus likely had in mind, Derek is often annoying and irritating,

---

Derek—who makes Craig in “Friendship” seem like the coolest dude on the planet—unfortunately is less than credible as the clueless, goofy, socially inept extrovert of the pair. Rather than the fastidious, manic, disturbed human being that writer and director Potrykus likely had in mind, Derek is often annoying and irritating, although his off-the-wall behavior may have been intended to make what happens later even more shocking. Marty, in contrast, has a minimal presence in the overly long, silly set-up. Camping by those who do not know how to camp lends itself to silly. Ominously, camping also has a place in the horror canon; witness 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project.”

Some viewers will see what’s coming when Derek, in the first spoken words of the film, says he’s left his keys at the diner. Others may find those first 40 minutes intriguing and suspenseful, as Derek searches for something he’s buried on a previous trip, the two of them toy with low-end, even homemade fireworks (including a long and presumably significant scene of those carbon-like “snakes” emerging from the first night’s campfire), and when Marty fumbles in the low light with a medieval-like metal apparatus.

---

it’s possible to read Derek and Marty as 2 sides of one manic/depressive persona.

---

A dramatic mid-way turn changes the camera’s focus from Derek to Marty. Burge’s portrayal of a man consumed by guilt—even before that turn—is compelling. Potrykus does close-ups as one rarely sees them, as in really really close, and Burge, with his facial expressions and body movements, is up to the task (at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, Burge won Special Jury Mention for Performance in a U.S. Feature). To grant the production an intellectuality it probably doesn’t deserve, it’s possible to read Derek and Marty as 2 sides of one manic/depressive persona with widely divergent thoughts about how to go forward—one embracing life, the other consumed by existential dread. The plot thickens, maybe enough to save the film.

Joshua Burge won Special Jury Mention for Performance in a U.S. Feature at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival for his role as the guilt-ridden Marty.

Potrykus has a substantial body of work and is known in independent film circles. As a “guerilla filmmaker,” he embraces the techniques of shooting without permits, with a limited cast, and on a micro-budget (in this case, $7,000, which is good because the box office to date is little more than twice that)—mostly around his home base of Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s no doubt because of Potrykus’s dedicated following that “Vulcanizadora” has obtained an 82 score from IMDb’s Metacritics and 98% on the Tomatometer (Rotten Tomatoes site).

A dark comedy—more dark than comedy—“Vulcanizadora” is an acquired taste. To have a chance at acquiring it, stay for Act 2.

---

She says: “Vulcanizadora’s” first half was a bridge too far. Too much caricature acting. The second half made it somewhat worthwhile.

He says: Joshua Burge’s skills remind me of Jeremy Allen White (TV’s “The Bear”) and Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin” [2022]). He deserves better material than “Vulcanizadora.”

---

Date: 2024

Director: Joel Potrykus

Starring: Joel Potrykus, Joshua Burge, Solo Potrykus

Country: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 85 minutes

Other Awards: 3 wins and 2 other nominations