I discovered this as i was hunting for Aidan Gillen films, and saw it had decent reviews. I wont go into the plot, as others have already. OK so this is a 'thinky' psychological film, and it reminded me a lot of the film 'The Machinist' (I'd recommend that if you liked this), but without the stylish effects. I thought Gillen would be too 'pretty' to pull off the role of a social misfit, but his acting is brilliant throughout, and his looks even help us to like the character more. His character is good at heart but completely sheltered. The female character is acted very naturally, though there is a certain ambiguity to her. The invalid mother is also well acted, initially I thought she was pretty light-hearted (if a little eccentric) but as the film progresses we see she has several 'other sides' to her personality.The film has several themes running through it, which to me, were: the growth of the main character's confidence and opinions(which develops possibly into madness), his changing views on religion, and the relationship with his mother, and of course the mystery of what the female neighbour is up to. There was also a lot of emphasis on some kidnapped little girl, but I wasn't quite sure how this fitted in with the story.For me, one of the best bits in the film is when Francis challenges gloria about her vegan-ism, and to me it was a parallel with religion. He was pretty devout at the start of the film, and defends that Jesus died for us even though we don't all love him. Yet he shouts at Gloria 'you would rather starve to death than eat a hamburger? You would die for a cow that's already dead?' Towards the end of the film, Francis is more outspoken, and is finally breaking free from the world his mother forces him to remain in, but his obsession with Gloria's eating habits start to rule his life. The whole thing is very ambiguous, and we don't know if it is true or he is just imagining it, and no there is no conclusion at the end! which keeps us guessing. In terms of style, its not the most eye-pleasing film. As i've said it is similar to The Machinist in it's dreary depiction of life and the surreal, repetitive shots used. The music is fairly un-noticeable throughout the film apart from the blasts of rock music at Francis' workplace, which helps to break up the monotony of the sets used, as its mostly set in Francis or Glorias apartments. the music at the opening credits is very creepy and Silent Hill-ish! Overall I'd say you'll enjoy this if you like psychological films you have to think about. There's little action, and basically no horror, but an interesting watch. My only complaint is that the film is way too long, pretty slow paced and tends to drag on too much in the first half. But give it a go!

Having just finished seeing this film I came to the message boards for answers, and only found others seeking the same thing. A vivid hallucinatory dream can feel like reality, with the imagery powerful, but undecipherable even to the dreamer. I conclude that this film was of this genre, a nightmare made into a public event, a film to be seen by all who can take it. Given the genre, given that it is valuable for someone to be into someone else's nightmare rather than their own, it is an admirable work of art. We go wrong when we ask for real world logic, where the bodies of large dead men do not disappear, and may not be taken away piece by piece on a bus. Dreams follow no such logic. They are there to allow a reconfiguration of reality into some kind of a resolution.The central riveting element for me was Francis' love affair with Gloria. She was luscious, kind, accepting, admiring and always there for him. (If that's not a clue that this is a dream fantasy, then what is?) His sexual pleasure was best when at a distance, through a telescope, only to be made flesh onto flesh with fear and reluctance on his part.There is a great word "verisimilitude" that describes the degree that a dramatic presentation approximates reality. It is usually considered a necessity, even though each work is allowed a degree of poetic license to vary from this for the purposes of dramatic effect."Buddy Boy," gets zero on the verisimilitude scale of actual life, as Francis is right not to believe that a girl like Gloria could actually love him. But this scale of realism has a different set of rules in nightmare films such as this. The only reality that must be sustained is emotional engagement, a working out of some unknown outside existence through the flashes of imagery that both intrude upon and advance the dream work.Francis, whoever he is when awake, is a suffering human being forsaken by God, family and the world around him. He also has come to believe that Jesus, whom he says gave his life for love of humanity, actually despises him. It is a world of kidnapped children whom he can not save, and vegans who kill and eat human beings.And yet, in the midst of all of this horror, he found someone to love him. No wonder he is reluctant to wake up.

1st watched 4/5/2007 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Mark Hanlon): Disturbing and fascinating story of a recluse who does nothing except take care of his ailing step mother until he meets his next door neighbor who he happens to be peeping at thru a hole in his basement on a daily basis. The peeping continues despite the fact that she falls in love with him and they spend many evenings together. She openly confesses to being a vegan, but Francis(the recluse) starts seeing things thru his peep hole that makes him think otherwise. Francis's life has been mixed up for awhile. His real mom&dad are dead -- his step mom is crazy & crippled, he lives a mundane life where he goes to work on the same bus everyday and doesn't really interact with people and knows very little about women until his next door neighbor comes along and disrupts his simple boring life. There is also a religious aspect to his life that does nothing but confuse him and gives him somewhere to confess his sins, but does nothing to help him in real life. Despite this, everything is going along OK until his step mom accidentally kills his boyfriend and Francis suspects his neighbor is killing men in her apartment and having a little snacky-poo from the remains(which is technically not being a vegan). OK, now that I've said this much, I still hope you will see this well done independent movie. It's compelling, creepy and a nice study on human existence for a few mixed up people.

Buddy Boy is strange film to get a hold of. It has very stylised production design and cinematography, and is quite slow to start but once it gets going, it becomes a very unique film. Francis is the main character. An introverted guy with a stutter who goes to a catholic church, works in a photo developers and lives with an old woman called Sal. Towards the beginning of the film, it builds up our information about the character using cinematic technique, rather than dialogue. The main crux of the film is formed when he meets a woman, Gloria and gets involved in a relationship with her. The film continues with a subplot about a missing child and a man who came in to fix a leaky pipe that keeps coming back and hanging out with Sal. The relationship between Francis and Gloria being the main plot, it takes a darker twist and we get lots of religious imagery, talk of God, hypocrisy and vegans. This is comes together to make quite an intriguing film, that whilst it doesn't quite seem to all gel together, is a worthy effort, and results in a better than average film.