Hippo – Fantasia 2023

A teenager who grew up in a sheltered existence with his mother and step-sister becomes increasingly protective and paranoid in Hippo. Adam (Kimball Farley), aka Hippo, is a young man who grew up in an incredibly sheltered existence with his mother Ethel (Eliza Roberts) and adopted Hungarian sister Buttercup (Lilla Kizlinger). Addicted to the video game Body Harvest, Hippo becomes increasingly obsessed with protecting his family from supposed alien invaders. At the same time, Buttercup desperately wants a child, to the point where she invites over Darwin (Jesse Pimentel), whom she met on Craigslist.

Hippo Synopsis

Hippo is a dark comedy directed by Mark H. Rapaport, which he co-wrote with star Kimball Farley. Farley plays the titular protagonist as if Napoleon Dynamite was a sociopathic alien conspiracy theorist with a God complex, while also looking quite similiar to Jim Jarmusch. Eric Roberts narrates the story, which focuses on both Hippo's desire to protect his family from alien invaders, as well as a slightly insestuous subplot of Hippo's adopted sister Buttercup wanting to have his baby.

My Thoughts on Hippo

Hippo probably works as a cautionary tale about the negative aftereffects of living a sheltered existence, as Hippo not only is adverse to having social interaction, but also believes himself to be an alien halfbreed with “acidic goo.” Hippo's mother Ethel and pervy Craigslist date Darwin are also loathsome in their own way, leaving Buttercup as the only truly sane character in this story, save for her incestuous urges. The end result is an incredibly funny dark comedy that you shouldn't sleep on.

Trailer for Hippo – Fantasia 2023