A comedic blend of absurdity and mock commentary, The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man pushes boundaries but lacks depth
I first encountered The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man through cryptic yellow posters around Sandy Hill. The name alone piqued my curiosity enough for me to photograph the poster on my phone. I later visited the website displayed on the poster: the enigmatic peepeepoopooman.com. I was greeted with little more than a mysterious trailer for a film and screening dates. It was at this point that I made the decision to watch The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man.
The film is loosely inspired by the real life of Samuel Opoku. Opoku was a 23 year old Toronto man, who was arrested and charged for “assault with a weapon” and “mischief interfering with property” in 2019. Opoku received the nickname of “Peepeepoopoo Man” by Toronto students.
The film, directed as a mockumentary, tells the story of Miguel (Rishi Rodriguez), the protagonist who is contacted by the CIA to dump raw sewage on civilians in Toronto.
The film paints Miguel as an isolated individual, struggling with mental health. He seeks the help of an online therapist but does not appear to find relief. Miguel seems to be suffering from psychotic symptoms (described as “paranoid” by the film’s promotional material) and struggles socially, leading to his unemployment. He seeks solace in the online world, endlessly ‘doomscroling’ on social media and enjoying vr porn of a snake simulating oral sex. Eventually, he gets a call informing him that he got hired for a job.
Miguel decides to celebrate by taking a tab of LSD. During his trip, Miguel is contacted by the CIA, where his mission is slowly revealed to involve dumping fecal matter onto the civilians of Toronto.
Miguel later travels to an abandoned church. Here while fully naked, he baptises himself in fecal matter making Miguel himself the first victim of the Pee Pee Poo Poo man. From this moment on, he embodies the “Pee Pee Poo Poo Man,” carrying out his mission to dump sewage on unsuspecting passersby.
Back in Toronto, we get many extravagant shots of the Pee Pee Poo Poo Man dumping brown liquid on people’s heads and bodies. These shit-shots were certainly interesting, some shown in slow motion or as tracking shots with drones. These scenes bring a mesmerising, ethereal tone to the film, and did not fail to get an impressed and disgusted reaction from the crowd every time. They do, understandably, become somewhat repetitive. It is around this point that the film takes a tonal turn.
The previous scene cuts to a new intimate moment, a man professing his love for a friend and getting rejected. A throuple caught in a love triangle and so on. The film does a good job of showing moments of intimate and realistic conversations. But every time, the intimate conversation is interrupted by the protagonist dumping his scatological bucket onto the unsuspecting victims. There is a deep conversation that almost distracts the audience from what the film is about. Then the characters get shit on. Over and over again.
I found these intimate scenes incongruent with the rest of the film. It feels like a cheap hack to include personal and mundane conversations with little connection to the main plot of the film.
While the film touches on themes of mental illness, social isolation, the allure of conspiracy theories and “addiction” to social media, it never delves deep enough to offer meaningful commentary. Instead, these elements felt like surface-level references, used more for humour than to provoke thought. As much as I wanted the film to say something significant about these topics, it seemed content with staying absurd for absurdity’s sake. Director and screenwriter, Braden Sitter, commented in an interview, “I think conspiracy theories are really fun as long as you take it lightly.” Ultimately, the film ends up mocking conspiracy theories, social media, porn, and drug use without offering any deeper insight into these topics by only having them played for laughs without saying anything of value. The film has a veil of social commentary that is transparent.The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man left me feeling conflicted. The film is creative, amusing and its absurdity did not fail to make me or the audience laugh. It certainly succeeded in creating a unique and memorable cinematic experience, but provided little more than that.
Missed the last viewing of The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man? Catch the next viewing on November 19th at ByTowne at 9pm and see if you agree with our review!
