Bad Haircut

Bluesky

In a parallel universe where getting one’s mop chopped does not result in people pointing and shouting “Haircut! Haircut!” but in fact makes a young person cool, young Billy (Spencer Harrison Levin), an awkward freshman who doesn’t know how to speak to girls, is singled out by sympathetic peers for rescue. Dealing with bullies and getting female attention is all about confidence, they tell him. It’s about the only thing they tell him that is to any extent true.

Amongst the other things they tell him is that they know where he can get a really amazing haircut; that barber Mick (Frankie Ray) is eccentric but basically safe; and that they will stay with him throughout the procedure. Billy is generally an anxious sort of person, but his reaction to the wild-eyed, excitable trichological artiste, who tells him that he looks like Brad Pitt (he does not look like Brad Pitt) and practically pins him to the chair, scissors at his throat, is more akin to terror. Mick may base his dreams on The Wizard Of Oz and Fellini’s 8½, but he’s casually violent, unthinkingly self-centred, and makes decisions by consulting a magic 8-ball.

There’s a pantomime aspect to this. Though apparently cisgender and keen to settle down with the redemptive love of a good woman, Mick is very much in the tradition of the Dame. Bigger, bolder and quicker-witted than Billy, he always seems to be several steps ahead. This doesn’t mean, however, that he doesn’t have problems to contend with, from a gun-toting hitman to trouble with the police – and that’s before we find out what’s going on in the back room.

With most of the film taking place in a single location, a lot depends on the production design, and there’s some great work here by Don Joseph Chase, enriching Mick’s world and helping to build in a weight of backstory. This matters all the more because there isn’t much structure to the story in the present, just a series of events, some of them telegraphed well in advance, strung together in the hope that the charisma of the leads will be sufficient to carry viewers through the slow parts. Director Kyle Misak also hopes to keep his audience excited and on edge with a mixture of absurdity and outrage. This is a bit hit and miss, but generally well paced, whilst a strong (and silent) supporting turn from Martin Klebba adding to the film’s thespian appeal.

Made on a very low budget (but, impressively, backed by an original orchestral score), this isn’t quite as wild and startling an experience as its creators seem to think, but for the most part it’s entertaining. Levin maintains an essential sweetness even as his character toughens up, so that formulaic developments feel a bit more natural. Most likely to appeal to a teen audience, the film is old fashioned in many ways but has clearly been made with love, and that goes a long way.

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