From Sundance: ‘Bubble & Squeak’ has Cabbages and Quirkiness Galore

Bubble and Squeak — the dish — is an English dish made of boiled cabbages and potatoes.

“Bubble & Squeak” — the film — is the debut feature of Evan Twohy which uses the unique sounds of the dish being cooked to characterize the complementary and conflicting dynamics of a relationship: the bubblers and the squeakers.

Set in a fictional pseudo-Slavic nation where cabbages have been outlawed and possession of said vegetable can result in violent punishments and death, newlywed Americans Delores (Sarah Goldberg) and Declan (Himesh Patel) must spend their honeymoon as outlaws when accused of smuggling cabbages into the country.

Originally written for the theater, the synopsis is destined to attract filmgoers who seek out absurd and whimsical stories that aggrandize reality in order to make sense of it. In “Bubble & Squeak,” the cabbage is a polysemic entity. It predominantly frames itself as the inner burdens that individuals bring to a relationship but at other times represents the corrosive forces of American interventionism.

The title becomes a characterization of the screwball yet highly endearing couple in the centre of all the cabbages: Delores as the imaginative and unfettered bubbler. Declan as the stringent and pedantic squeaker.

Patel and Goldberg have complete conviction in their roles as they assimilate to the wackiness of Twohy’s world. Goldberg is the standout, as her comedic brilliance — already showcased in HBO’s “Barry” — is fleshed out through playing an overly naive version of Bonnie Parker.

Unfortunately, the audience’s ability to wholly invest themselves in “Bubble & Squeak” is hindered by how much of a pastiche Twohy’s film is, even if the characters and narrative are suitably entertaining.

Within the first few minutes of the film, the audience is invited into a world of perfectly symmetrical cinematography met with stilted, deadpan dialogue that ultimately reads as a synthesized work of Yorgos Lanthimos and Wes Anderson.

T.S Elliot once said, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal” — a phrase that Quentin Tarantino has adopted into his own creative process. For Twohy, in constructing such a mimetic aesthetic, his original voice is completely overshadowed by the quirky filmic tapestry of bigger directors. This then creates an exhaustive watch for two-and-a-half acts where even the insanity of the plot never feels grounded in the director’s own vision. The film becomes mostly quirky for quirk’s sake.

Cinematographer Anna Smoronová directly cites Lanthimos as an influence for the visual elements of “Bubble & Squeak,” which is evident through the ultra-wide lenses that frame customs waiting rooms as entire, expounded worlds.

However, to Twohy’s credit, he manages to find his own voice in the final act, where his world-building and intentions are finally discernible beyond the familiar aesthetics. A majority of the film takes place in the unnamed country’s forest, a limbo of a setting because the whimsy of the world never physically manifests itself beyond the trees and lakes. Yet once the outlawed couple leave the forests and immerse themselves in the culture of this imagined land, Twohy’s intentions — in retrospect — and artistry truly shine.

“Bubble & Squeak” is a hyper-indie film where Twohy mainly executes an exhaustive style that oscillates between being creatively inventive and stylistically tedious. Yet this is also a story about a land that outlaws cabbages with an earnest relationship in its orbit, a combination that will never bore an audience even if it all seems rather familiar.

An honourable mention goes to the memorable Dave Franco, who braves the skin-suit of a bear to smuggle cabbages.

—Staff writer Kai C. W. Lewis can be reached at kai.lewis@thecrimson.com.