Bad Boy Bubby

Bad Boy Bubby is an Australian-Italian comedy, crime and drama film about a man who has spent his entire life confined to a small, squalid room by his mother. She has convinced him that the air outside is poisonous and that he cannot survive beyond the walls of their home. Bubby, who is around thirty-five but has the understanding of a child, knows nothing of the world except his mother and the cat he plays with. His mother feeds him, beats him and abuses him, all according to her moods. The sudden reappearance of the father, absent for many years, upends the household and pushes Bubby to step outside the front door for the first time.

The film was released in 1993 and runs 114 minutes. Rolf de Heer directed and wrote the screenplay, working with producers Domenico Procacci, Giorgio Draskovic and himself. Nicholas Hope plays Bubby, alongside Ralph Cotterill as Pop, Claire Benito as Mum, Syd Brisbane as Yobbo, Ullie Birvé and Natalie Carr. It is the first of the three films de Heer directed listed in sequence, ahead of Alien Visitor in 1997 and Ten Canoes in 2006, and it was made with support from the South Australian Film Corporation and the Australian Film Finance Corporation.

Audiences have responded warmly to the film over the years. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.3 out of 10 from around 16,000 votes, while on TMDB its rating is 6.9 out of 10 from 319 votes. The larger vote count on IMDb suggests the film has kept a steady following since its release.