Color, 2016, 96m.
Directed by Johnny Buell
Starring Jeffrey Janoff, John Branch, Whim Grace, Jared Yanez, Steven Fusco, Duggy Collomy, Linnea Quigley, Brittney Hancock, Richard Bain, Teresa Boyd, Jacob Bean-Watson
Infectious (Blu-ray & DVD) (US R0 HD/NTSC) / WS (2.35:1) (16:9)


The Unquenchable Thirst for Beau NerjooseThe Unquenchable Thirst for Beau NerjooseAt last, here's a film to relieve your brain from all that elite, heady intellectualism in those arty Troma films. A dirty sci-fi musical with claymation animation and every bodily fluid you can name, The Unquenchable Thirst for Beau Nerjoose feels like a crazed improvised epic made up by a bunch of guys on shrooms, which seems to be exactly the intention. Guaranteed to stop conversation at any movie party, it's a slick, colorful, completely deranged rollercoaster of a movie that goes straight for the gag reflex with a beat you can dance to.

A bearded guy (Carter) writes down the modern scripture of how a trio of space nuns (Fusco, Collomy and Yanez) have helped guide into reality a prophecy involving universal peace brought about by two chosen ones. Unfortunately the female half of that prophecy, Sister Hope (Grace), who was left on their convent doorstep twenty years ago while they were sunbathing topless and attacked by "titty maggots," has been abducted by the wicked Dr. Beau Nerjoose (Branch), presumably related to Mr. Sum Yun Gai. They tell their story one day in the woods to hapless Ron (Janoff), who's just been dumped by his orange-faced wife, Tracey (Hancock), and whose mother (Boyd) has slipped into a coma after spending the last two decades in the looney bin. An encounter with some mystical mushrooms blesses him with a talking The Unquenchable Thirst for Beau Nerjooseclaymation booty worm from the planet Urectum, who guides The Unquenchable Thirst for Beau Nerjoosehim on the path to finding Ron's aunt Esmerelda (Quigley), a whore fortune teller. Informed that he has to scale the imposing Dick Mountain, he's given a survival pack by Esemerelda and sent on his way to stopping Dr. Nerjoose from getting his hands on the great sex toys that hold the key to universal harmony. Then it gets weird.

So random and deliberately stupid it defies description, this is actually an ambitious and visually striking film with various types of animation, some cheap but hilariously inventive production design (including an interstellar climactic battle that hilariously switches to green screen for a few minutes), and a song score that mixes the stultifyingly idiotic with a few catchy tunes mixing various styles ranging from synthwave to beach pop to whatever that titty maggot song is. The game cast is clearly up for anything, and Janoff in particular does a good job of holding it together with a wide-eyed performance that has you on his side even when it isn't remotely clear what his quest actually is. It's always nice to see Quigley, too, showing off her comedy chops with a welcome extended cameo that's one of the film's highlights. Besides, where else can you see a cartoon involving a galactic Fleshjack?

The Unquenchable Thirst for Beau NerjooseThe Unquenchable Thirst for Beau NerjooseFollowing several festival screenings, this crazed little production was brought to Blu-ray and DVD via a Kickstarter campaign. The English audio can be played in Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 options with optional English subtitles (both sound fine), and tons of extras are included to give you a crash course in everything you could possibly want to know about the production that started life in 2013. "Behind the Boners" (21 mins.) features director Buell and the cast in action on "the dumbest movie of all time" (including a cool look at how some of the claymation was done including the bizarre self-gratifying bear), a reel of deleted scenes (7 mins.), another 7 minutes of bloopers ("mostly farts," according to the menu, but not really), a 3-minute demo on how to create movie turds (take that, Criterion), over 2 minutes of audition footage with Janoff and Hancock edited into a mash up, a "Build Your Own Goddman Jib!" 1-minute film school pitch (in front of posters for the most prestigious series in film history), and a trailer for Pool of Blood.

Reviewed on April 6, 2017.