Despite having been working consistently on both film and television for around two decades, it has only been in the last couple of years that we have found Mike White to be getting the recognition he deserves – an artist with the ambition of a great independent filmmaker and the vaguely deranged mind of someone who intends to shock just as much as he wants to delight, his work has taken on many different forms, ranging from the instantly accessible to the downright perverted. His first major film as a writer certainly emphasizes the latter, with Chuck & Buck (which was also his first collaboration with Miguel Arteta in his capacity as a writer-director pairing, who directed several of White’s screenplays over the years) being one of the more controversial entries into his already quite diverse body of work. The film tells the story of a childlike man named Buck who reconnects with his childhood best friend Chuck after the sudden death of his mother, and their brief and congenial reunion, which is filled with pleasantries and not much else, soon turns into something more sinister when Buck decides to pack up and move to the same city as his friend, who grows less enthusiastic to see him with every chance encounter and surprise visit, particularly because they allude to something that happened between them in their childhood that Buck holds onto as a cherished memory, but Chuck would prefer to forget about entirely. A strange and off-kilter work that takes inspiration from the likes of Todd Solondz and John Waters, as well as a range of other independent provocateurs, Chuck & Buck, is a bizarre film with many peculiarities, but which uses them creatively to craft quite a unique narrative that goes in search of deeper themes alongside its often perverse sense of humour, making it a much more layered production than we may have expected based on a cursory glance.

White is a very conceptual storyteller, and he rarely crafts ideas that are not heavily steeped in certain themes, even if they do appear to be quite simple on the surface. Chuck & Buck is one of the more obvious examinations of deeper themes, with the overall premise relating to two men who used to be close friends, but found their paths deviating so widely later in life, once they encounter one another again, they find that they barely have anything in common. This is a subject that should resonate with many viewers since it is likely we all have a friendship that meant a lot to us when we were younger, but various obstacles got in the way, forcing us to grow apart, which is a natural but still quite sad experience, especially in those moments when we look back at those carefree days of childhood. Of course, White is as far from a sentimental writer as we can get, so his version of this universal occurrence is going to be borderline psychopathic, which is all part of the charm. This is a film that looks at friendship that was built on shared interests, but which gradually dissipated until there was nothing that could hold it together anymore – it isn’t clear whether they grew apart organically through pursuing different interests, or because the two characters linger on the sexual encounter they had when they were younger, and harbour very different feelings about what was just a brief lapse in judgment. Within this side of the narrative (which eventually takes over the story), we find that Chuck & Buck is interrogating the very nature of masculinity as a whole, with the titular characters representing vastly different kinds of men who are far from compatible and very rarely find themselves in one another’s orbit, which adds to the tension that lingers throughout the film. Perhaps the most basic theme that the film revolves around is desire in its various forms – everything that Buck sets out to do about reconnecting with Chuck is based around satiating some lust, whether it be for the validation that his friend still remembers him, or something more carnal, which leads us to a truly bewildering and quite unsettling conclusion in which the carefully-constructed borders of this story shatter and we are left with quite a strange outcome that fits the nature of the narrative perfectly.

There are several themes present throughout Chuck & Buck, and how they intersect is quite fascinating, with Arteta working closely with White’s peculiar script, creating a film that is as technically off-the-wall as it is narratively challenging, since having these themes present means very little if there isn’t something actively being done to develop them. This is a profoundly creepy film – from the first moments, we are put in a position of unease, which isn’t helped by the fact that this film was produced right at the advent of digital filmmaking, the early era of which has resulted in works that have not aged particularly well, but which aids in creating quite an unsettling atmosphere with this film. It’s a dark comedy about very serious subject matter, and the story ebbs and flows between goofy and genuinely terrifying at different points, which makes the more touching moments even more inexplicable, since we cannot help but find the character of Buck oddly charming. This is the rare instance of a film about a sociopath who is always on the character’s side, and we watch as the film proposes that we give this character a chance to prove himself, which ultimately proves to be a fruitless endeavour, but one that is still quite creative in terms of how a character is developed. This sense of tonal instability extends throughout the film, and we find that the entire story is based around presenting us with these awkward scenarios, which eventually evolve into unbearable tension – and yet, we only find ourselves being drawn more into the story, which builds on this suspense and creates quite a daring examination of these two individuals as they confront the ghosts of the past, which return to haunt them as they attempt to reconsider the events that ultimately led to the decline of their friendship. It’s harsh, jagged filmmaking that is perfectly encapsulated by the conflict stirred in the viewer as we attempt to figure out precisely what these characters represent, which is a daunting but worthwhile endeavour.

The circumstances that led to White playing the lead role in Chuck & Buck are not clear – he was not a well-known actor with much experience (in fact, his only prior role was a brief performance in Arteta’s previous film, Star Maps), and he didn’t seem like someone who was intent on a career as a working actor, being more focused on writing, which has seemingly been his passion all along. Whether he always intended to play the role or knew that a bigger actor would reject the part based on what he would be required to do, we may never know – but it is clear that White is perfectly cast as Buck, and he delivers an impressive performance that makes us wonder what could have happened had he chosen to pursue acting over writing and directing – he’s certainly proven that he can play a wide range of roles throughout he supporting parts he’s taken on over the years, but Chuck & Buck establishes that he could lead a film exceptionally well. His performance is directly supportive of the tone of the film – Buck is supposed to be childlike and naive, but not in a way that suggests that he is mentally deficient in any way, but rather suffered some kind of socially-induced arrested development that led him to take on this very strange persona, which exists in some ambigious space between adolescence and adulthood. This all makes his journey a lot more engaging and complex, and we find that there is a lot more beneath the surface of this performance than we initially imagined. Chris Weitz, another writer and director who had sporadic acting appearances over the years, plays the other half of the titular duo, and while his role is a lot more subdued (essentially entailing just reacting to White’s eccentricities), he is still very good. However, it is Lupe Ontiveros, one of the greatest character actors of her generation, who steals the film and makes every scene in which she appears feel special, and while White’s performance anchors the film, she is the emotional heart and soul of the film, and helps tie many of the more ambigious themes together through her masterful performance. As a unique character study, Chuck & Buck certainly has several strong performances that push it forward and make it such a profoundly compelling dark comedy with a very particular satirical edge.

When it comes to assessing White’s work, it helps to expect the unexpected, a principle that stands us in good stead and helps shed the perception that a story needs to follow a particular pattern for the audience to form a connection with it, which is something of a fallacy that he has spent years disproving in one way or another. As the first work in which he had a prominent role as either a writer or actor, Chuck & Buck was intended to be a breakthrough moment for White, which it eventually managed to achieve, although a lot of its support came from those who saw it in the subsequent years, either revisiting it after White ascended to become a much more notable figure in the industry, or simply through stumbling upon it as it became more widely available. Yet, it still feels shrouded in a thin veil of obscurity, or at least it is not as well-regarded as it ought to be outside of the select group that has proposed it as a cult classic. Yet, it only seems to be rising in stature as time goes on, and we find that the deceptive and strange quirks that often linger beneath the surface of his films are very much present here, with White’s earnest ability to present such a strange and unsettling narrative in the form of an eccentric dark comedy that genuinely believes itself to be a romantic comedy grounding the film, making it a far more engaging affair that feels earnest and heartfelt, and keeps us invested throughout its entire duration, which is quite an achievement considering how the film is consistently pushing boundaries of good taste, proving to be as hilarious as it is perverse, a combination that is tricky to get right, but once the correct balance is struck, there is very little we can do to distract from the sheer genius embedded right at the heart of this bizarre but brilliant film.