‘Buddy’ Review: Casper Kelly’s Gross-Out Satire On Bland Kids’ TV Packs An Existential Punch
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By Damon Wise
Damon Wise
Film Editor, Awards
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’I Want Your Sex’ Review: Olivia Wilde And Cooper Hoffman Dominate The Screen In Gregg Araki’s Fun, X-Rated Comedy – Sundance Film Festival Sundance Film Festival 2026: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews ‘Buddy’ Review: Casper Kelly’s Gross-Out Satire On Bland Kids’ TV Packs A Dark, Existential Punch – Sundance Film Festival German political theorist Hannah Arendt warned of the banality of evil back in 1963, but co-writer/director Casper Kelly revels in the evil of banality in this anarchic horror-comedy, which uses the inane world of (young) children’s television as a backdrop to an ingenious slasher movie. If the name sounds familiar, Kelly went viral in 2014 with Too Many Cooks, a jaw-dropping 11-minute short that, similarly, featured the what-if — and WTF — scenario of TV sitcom characters becoming sentient and finding themselves at the mercy of a serial killer. Kelly plays with form in ways that some might find exasperating, but there is always a method to his madness and, like Too Many Cooks, Buddy goes out on a psychedelic high, like an extraordinary experiment in mind control.
Published: January 23, 2026 5:36 pm
Source: Deadline — Read original