I’m a fan of indie director Joel Potrykus, particularly the two films I’ve seen where he collaborates with actor Joshua Burge, Buzzard and Relaxer. They’re both slacker comedies smashed into dark and surreal places, increasing anxiety and discomfort while also being funny. One inspiration for Vulcanizadora (2024) was Potrykus seeing Gerry and wanting to make his own version, delving into aspects that Gus Van Sant’s film didn’t care to explore.
Shot on film and opening in the green, leafy Michigan woods, Vulcanizadora also recalls Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, with two friends walking into the woods as both an escape and an act devoted to their friendship. If you had the sound off, you could mistake it for an arthouse film, but the soundtrack kicks off with doom sludge metal, and when Portrykus’ character Derek starts talking, he could be a goofball teenager with his obsessions on eating snacks and ragging on his silent compatriot Marty (Burge).
Vulcanizadora builds up to an act that is slowly alluded to and revealed, the real reason for why these two buddies are in the woods. Potrykus is just as interested in charting the existential fall-out and the impact this event has, interrogating the anxiety, depression and detachment that these arrested-development types experience, from each other and by themselves. A subtle sequel to Buzzard in that these are two characters from that previous movie, and yet the tone and focus of Vulcanizadora feels like a progression and a development for these no-account archetypes, no longer in their 20s but approaching middle age. Potrykus is very funny as a talkative and sad loser, which allows Burge to once again triumph through his restraint and minimal expressions across his distinctive face.
Vulcanizadora was the type of trip I enjoyed going on, as heavy and violent as the film gets, finding a different iteration of the knife-glove contraption that Marty used in Buzzard. But when I thought back on certain scenes, I laughed more, and appreciated the melancholy and how it was expressed.
I had to use a VPN to stream this from the US; hoping it gets at least a digital release in Australia.
VHS Tracking 