Starbuck (Ken Scott, 2011): Canada

Reviewed by Sandra Andersson. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Starbuck is the film everyone was talking about during this years Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the film even won the Audience Choice Award during the closing night of the festival. It’s understandable why Starbuck was so popular during the festival, it is an absolute hilarious film directed by Ken Scott.

20 years ago, in exchange for money David(Patrick Huard) provided sperm to a fertility clinic under the name Starbuck. Now, 20 years later he finds out that during the time 1990-1992 the clinic only used his sperm which resulted in that he fathered 522 children, and 142 of these children now wants to know how their father is. At the same time as David finds out about all his 533 children he also finds out that his girlfriend Valérie is pregnant. David struggle with all this new information about his life, should he come forward and tell everyone that he is Starbuck or should he continue his life with his girlfriend and the baby they’re expecting?

In a Q&A after the film the director Ken Scott said he wanted to do Starbuck because he and his co-writer felt they had a lot to say about fatherhood, since both of them are fathers. Ken Scott wanted the film to be authentic, show that fatherhood is like a comedy with it’s funny moments and like a drama with it’s challenges.

In the film you get to follow David struggle with the knowledge about his 533 children, we get to see him push everything away from him at first. Then in one sequence we get to follow David without any chronological order meet several of his children, wanting to help them and be a part of their life without them knowing how he is, the film cuts back and forward several times between the children he has found and made contact with.

Starbuck is a film that will make you happy and you’ll leave the theatre with a smile on your lips. With it’s bright and clear colors together with it’s catchy and sarcastic dialog you want the film to go on forever. Starbuck is about 100 minutes long, but it flies by so fast and it feels like you just sat down and the film started. I have to say that if you get the chance to see Starbuck you should take it, you won’t regret spending your time watching it.