Since their land was contamined by the toxic waste dump, the city council approves that the backward, dirty Flodder family is to be moved to a mansion in the elite neighborhood Zonnedael, free of charge or rent. The family consists out of three brothers, including Johnny; two sisters, including Kees and Toet; mother, grandpa and dog. The family causes a commotion among their neighbors, mostly doctors or lawyers, since they use blackmail and theft to gain more money. When their grandpa is killed by a train since his wheelchair was stuck on train tracks, ma discovers a large sum of money among his train toys and buys the mansion. Johnny starts a relationship with Yolanda, but her jealous husband, a military general, steals a tank and shoots at their mansion, destroying it, but Flodders don't mind and instead move to the house of the wounded social worker.
Intended as a European populist comedy for the wider audiences, a one which imitates similar American comedy films, "Flodder" surprisingly became the 6th highest grossing Dutch movie of the 20th century, with 2,314,000 tickets sold at the local box office. Released a year before the similar TV comedy series "Married... with Children", "Flodder" is a black comedy that deliberately goes so over-the-top in depicting an anti-social, dysfunctional, primitive, and overall totally failed freak family that it is not for everyone's taste, but since everything is so exaggerated, it cannot be taken as anything but silly fun. The humor sometimes goes far into crude territory, making fun of incest, prostitution (for instance, the naked brother sleeps in bed with his attractive sister Kees (Tatjana Simic), but is caught during the night by ma and chased away back to his room; another brother takes money from men standing in line at the entrance of his Kees' room, who waits inside to have sex with them...) and even blackmail and extortion (Kees goes to the garage of her neighbor, a married car salesman, and has sex with him, but her brother secretly takes a photo of them. Cue to the next scene of Johnny later going to the office of said car salesman to buy a red car. The car salesman goes: "How do you intend to play? Cash, credit card...?", as Johnny gives him the photo of the car salesman having sex with Kees, and says: "Polaroid!"), showing all the banned "lower urges" of people in society, but it is often very funny. It also depicts a satirical take on anti-gentrification and cultural integration, since instead of the higher class elevating the Flodder family in the elite neighborhood, the Flodders actually drag everyone else to a lower level. A wild, outrageous comedy that breaks loose the stiff civility, flawed and flat, but still amusing, with one remarkable camera move from above a speeding car, to descending down underneath the second speeding car in a chase scene some 35 minutes into the film.
Grade:++
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