Vulcanizadora

Programmers notes: This feels like the film Joel Potrykus has been building towards. The Michigan-based maverick and star Joshua Burge, the team behind potent underground gems like Buzzard and Relaxer, return with another film born of the detritus of late-capitalist America. Vulcanizadora’s characters are as hung up on junk food, movies, and video games (not to mention homemade body-modifying tools of violence) as in prior Potrykus films. But real life has finally caught up with these dudes. It turns out the world inhabited by Potrykus’ characters is larger than the Dorito-spit bubble that birthed them; they still do live in a society, and one in which actions have consequences outside their own dream-worlds.

I recall watching Dancer in the Dark at The Charles in its initial release, and marveling that Lars von Trier had made a film in which different members of the audience were laughing and crying at the same scene, at the same time–and that both factions of the audience were equally correct. This is another such film—and a bold step forward from a real hero of regional cinema. 

— Eric Allen Hatch

Q+A with director Joel Potrykus expected following the film.