Blue Boy
2023 · 19m · USA
Directed by Tyler Riggs
Tones: absurdist, melancholic, tense
An insecure New Jersey bodybuilder named Joey Rossi, a.k.a. 'Joey Muscles,' starts doing steroids in a last-ditch effort to go pro as he nears the end of his physical prime. Shot at a real bodybuilding competition with real competitors as extras, the film blurs the line between fiction and documentary.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Guerrilla-shot pseudo-doc fiction at a real bodybuilding show with real competitors — that's the only interesting way to make this movie and they did it. Could be a banger or could be Pumping Iron with extra steps.
Riggs's guerrilla integration of fiction into a real bodybuilding competition recalls Sean Baker's hybrid methodology, and Matthew Leone's casting promises authenticity. A genuinely unusual production-strategy gesture.
18:50 shot guerrilla-style at a real bodybuilding competition with real competitors as extras — that's the kind of zero-control documentary-fiction blend that either gives you Pumping Iron texture or chaos. With Matthew and Marie Leone (real bodybuilders, presumably) carrying it, I'm betting on texture.
Reviews
Blue Boy has something fresh to say about the fragile veneer of stereotypical masculinity, and the hard work that goes into making a dream come true.
The film explores a very particular kind of man — one who has been reduced to a stereotype in a post-Jersey Shore world — reminding us that there's a human being lying beneath all those layers of spray tan.
Festivals
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2023
- Woodstock Film Festival 2023
- Gasparilla International Film Festival 2024, Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short
- Sarasota Film Festival 2024
- Atlanta Film Festival 2024
- Woods Hole Film Festival 2024
- Hamptons International Film Festival 2024