Gutter punk culture finally gets its moment
If Hunting Pignut has a sense of almost documentary realism at times, it’s not a coincidence. Canadian writer-director Martine Blue spent time in her youth as part of the “gutter punk” culture that forms the backdrop of her feature debut.
Her alter ego in the film is Bernice (Kelowna, B.C.’s Taylor Hickson), growing up in the east-of-nowhere hamlet of Black Gut, N.L., and railing against her mother’s controlling influence. Her life gets thrown for a loop when she learns that the estranged father she barely knew has died of a drug overdose.
And things take an even stranger turn when the old man’s skeevy friends crash the funeral, calling him “Fathead” (but in a friendly way) and generally causing a ruckus. It’s only after they’ve been ejected from the event that someone realizes they’ve absconded with the ashes.
Blue gives Bernice a reason to follow them; she’s just found an old journal that piques her curiosity about her non-conformist father, and she’s clearly itching to get out in the world, or at least out of Black Gut.
Gutter punk is a loose way of life, characterized by facial tattoos, squat living, unemployment and general rootlessness. Bernice, calling herself Story, falls in easily with a group of punks led by den mother Maggie (Bridget Wareham) and the possibly unhinged Pignut (Joel Thomas Hynes). The film doesn’t sugarcoat the culture, but Blue knows there’s an appeal there as well — it offers friendship, art and a playful sense of community, but also violence and the constant threat of substance abuse.
Hunting Pignut delivers a genial and balanced portrayal of these cultural contradictions, and Hickson, who had a small role as Meghan Orlovsky in Deadpool, provides wavering and uncertain reactions that help anchor the story. With this successful if slight film under her belt, it will be interesting to see where Blue turns next.