BUSTER’S MAL HEART

US, 2016, 96 minutes, Colour.
Rami Malek, D.J. Qualls, Kate Lyn Sheil, Sukha Belle Potter, Lyn Shaye, Sandra Ellis Laferty, Nicholas Pryor.
Directed by Sarah Adina Smith.


An unusual title – but, who is Buster?

This film has elements of alternate worlds, science fiction aspects of a glitch in time and place.

Rami Malek, before he was so famous in Mr Robot and his multi-award-winning performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, plays two characters here, the outlaw, Buster, being pursued by the law, and Jonah, with a Hispanic background, married to a reformed addict and with a child, night manager in a hotel.

The screenplay indicates the story of the two men but indicates many of their interconnections. This is the kind of story that makes demands on an audience while it watches the film as well as challenging them to draw out the implications concerning who is who, issues of identity.

Towards the end of the film, there is a sequence where Rami Malek, as Jonah, comes to a fork in the road, is seen becoming two persons, each of them taking each road.

There are echoes of other films, especially for the night manager at the hotel and echoes of The Shining.

1. The title? Arresting? Who is Buster?

2. The narrative, real, surreal, alternate worlds?

3. The settings, the rowboat alone at sea, woods and forests and pursuit, the ordinary home, the church, the hotel, the work of the concierge, the television programs?

4. The initial pursuit of Buster, the sheriff and his squad, Buster as a character, mountain man, hair and beard, the pursuit? In the house, in the bath, the contrast with the boat, floating, the fishing reel? In the house, listening to the radio? The phone calls, the cosmic information, the voices, the last freeman, is turning the pictures upside down, the music – and the rivers of Babylon?

5. The contrast with the world of Jonah, Remi Malek as both characters? At home, his wife and daughter, playing in the bath, respectable, short back and sides, his uniform for his job? The concierge and his being conscientious, the cleaning, the nightshift?

6. The role of the visitor, The Last Free Man, their discussions, the nature of freedom, his not giving his name, working without systems, the discussions, confiding in Jonah? The issue of rules, The Inversion?

7. The theme of the Inversion, the design of the window by Buster, the television information, turning the pictures upside down? A kind of apocalyptic message? The changing world?

8. Jonah, at home, talking with the boss, the nightshift and sleeping? The grandmother in the house, her help, continued critique, prudish and television programs, not wanting the grandchild to learn Spanish as well as English? Problems of money, his arguments with his wife, slaves of rent, plan to get a property, his apology? His wanting to be far away but his complaint that he could get no traction?

9. Life at the hotel, the delayed passengers, the visitor and his stealing, collusion with Jonah? The boss offering the room to Jonah’s wife and daughter, their enjoyment of the holiday at the hotel?

10. Buster in the house, the phone sex, stealing the clothes, continued information about The Inversion?

11. The boss, the hotel corridors like The Shining, the robberies, the boss concerned about Jonah and caffeine? The offer of the holiday?

12. The range of television programs? The animated Modern Times worker as a cog in the wheel? The ominous warnings about the future? Dr Moon and her taking phone calls to explain people’s lives to them? The Last Free Man, his return, his explanation about there being a glitch, Jonah
as a glitch?

13. Jonah, his mental state, the mental state of Inversion? The blood, the death of his wife and daughter? The police, the interrogation? His explanations about the visitor? The surveillance footage and Jonah being alone? Responsibility for the crime?

14. Buster, the boat, the frogs, the blood? His going to the house, his red clothes, the old couple and tying them up, the meals and feeding them, the response of the elderly people, the old man not with it, the wife and her pleading? The trooper coming to the door and Buster fobbing him off? The sheriff identifying him?

15. The funeral, Jonah driving away, the transition to Buster in the boat, the television and his mother with Jonah’s going overboard? The Hispanic background? The television, phoning Dr Moon and her explanation?

16. The glitch in the system, a bug in the system, The Last Free Men sent to fix it, an exterminator?

17. Jonah, escape, the forked roads, as splitting, two men walking on different words?

18. The impact of the epilogue? The two characters? Their lives? Washed up on the shore, images of wife and daughter – The Inversion? Heaven?