BUNNY AND THE BULL

This is a real gem of a film from director Paul King, whose work on the Mighty Boosh seems to have served, rather unfairly, as the main marketing point for this movie. There’s some Boosh styled silliness for sure and Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett provide laughs in some excellent supporting roles, but any comparisons would be misleading because the film is a warm, funny, inspired vision that is equal parts as amusing as it is poignant; and it should be judged very much on it’s own inventive merits.

It’s a tale told in flashback by Stephen, a lonely shut-in, recounting his travels around Europe with best mate Bunny, and Eloisa the fiery Spanish waitress they meet along the way. Essentially the film is a journey around Stephen’s mind with fantastic flourishes of imagination – a seafood restaurant is quite literally sketched out behind them, a horse race rendered in Captain Pugwash styled animation,  or the fearsome bull of the title depicted as a stomping, snorting, stop-motion amalgamation of cogs and scissors. This is a visually stunning movie with a great heart, and it’s a story well told.

It is also, crucially, very funny. Some great cameos abound, from Noel Fielding’s Spanish bullfighter to Julian Barrett’s disturbing canine obsessed hobo. With Richard Ayoade’s fantastically mundane Shoe Museum guide being the real standout.

There’s a nod to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as we traverse Simon’s memories and as a comparison, Eternal Sunshine stands as good one. Both movies blend the laughs and tears of the downtrodden hero to good effect.

In trying not to give away too much, it becomes hard to give away anything at all. Although the movie is best approached that way, it may explain why it was a hard sell. Bunny and the Bull is a film that defies categorisation – is it a comedy? Is it a tragedy? The answer is both. It moves effortlessly between being deliriously funny and genuinely touching poignancy. But the most important thing to take from it is joy at a film basking in inventiveness and creativity. They have crafted a beautiful, humorous tale without straying into either weak humour nor maudlin heart-string tugging. We have a film setting out to be original and unique and largely succeeding on all counts.

This film is warm, funny and inspired and deserves to be seen by anyone craving an example of film with boundless humour and imagination. For my money, it’s one of the films of the year. Wonderful.

IMDB: Bunny And The Bull