Phoebe Jane Hart’s “Bug Diner” is not for kids. Let’s get that out of the way right at the top. It’s worth stressing this now, especially in light of the controversy surrounding its release on Vimeo a few months ago, where it was given the coveted Staff Picks badge (guaranteeing it thousands more views), then quickly taken down two days later for fear of its graphic content by Vimeo’s Legal and Trust & Safety team for being inappropriate for younger viewers. Luckily (or not, depending on the circumstances), YouTube has very few safeguards against content. They’re quick to silence a video that violates a copyright law, but everything else seems to be fair play.
You can read more about the Vimeo censorship controversy and its outcome on IndieWire, but as someone who uses the platform frequently for this column, the very idea of these policies being put into practice is alarming. As you’ll read in the article, it’s not just about sexual content, but political content as well. I work with young people who often talk about what they find on YouTube. I never hear young people talk about the short films and festival favorites they would see on Vimeo, since by and large, they’ve never heard of it, and hardly anything ever goes viral on that platform.
“Bug Diner” is on YouTube with an age-restricted notice on the page, and for good reason. Hart’s stop-motion animated film features bugs in a diner, most of them horny, lovesick, or both. The waitress/fly nervously tries to get the attention of the mole who cooks everything underground and wears only an apron. She has kinky S&M fantasies about two of them hooking up in the steamy kitchen. Meanwhile, up above, an anteater stumbles through confessing his longing and love for a squirrel who wants to keep him in the friend zone. Finally, there are the grasshoppers, one of whom tries to seduce the other into a lustful tryst right there in the middle of the diner.
Everything about “Bug Diner” comes off as kinda awkward, uncomfortable, and a little gross, but that’s mainly because we’re humans watching insects and varmints engaging in these acts and not other people. Are humans any better at this? How many pets have walked in on their owners doing something they wouldn’t want filmed and put on YouTube? Those pets can’t just unsee that and might be just as grossed out by it. By placing these bugs in a human setting (a greasy roadside diner) and giving them human attributes, Hart cleverly makes these creatures mirrors of ourselves at our most vulnerable and oddly desirable.
It is also a very funny film. Most of the voices are done by Hart herself, and her vocal performance is delightfully off-kilter and in need of subtitles, which she happily provides. The film builds to a climax, of course, but one that reminds us that we’re just witnessing nature taking its course, with sex and death being part of the natural journey. No, “Bug Diner” is definitely not for kids and won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s a beautifully rendered world Hart and her animators have created here, one that happens to be about bugs having sex.
I programmed it a couple of years ago for the Chicago Critics Film Festival, when people were questioning the validity of sex scenes in movies. I’m not sure how or whether that debate ever got resolved, but I do remember finding “Bug Diner” a clever antidote to the discussion itself. Bugs can be funny. Sex can definitely be funny. Maybe don’t overthink it.
But see it for yourself now, just in case it gets taken down again. NSFW.
