Set in America’s Deep South, Pernilla (Evan Louison) and Patrick (Remy Bennett), struggle to find love against a haunted and troubled past. The suicide of a childhood friend compels Pernilla to leave behind a seedy New York back-drop and end up on Patrick’s doorstep. Shut away, they re-ignite what they once had, as the walls speak Southern religion under the influence of the battle. What they had was innocent and playful, yet sexually cruel, manically loving and rusted quite profoundly away with guilt.

Buttercup Bill is a psycho-sexual romance which tells the story of Patrick and Pernilla, who appear as obsessed soul mates, desperate to cling on to the past. You could almost describe the pair as twins, as opposed to either friends or lovers. Bennett – the granddaughter of esteemed musician Tony Bennett, co-directs this title alongside Émilie Richard-Froozan, and it plays, even toys with the idea of the paths we must walk down with an unwillingness to forget, and the life we build up when no goodness can be found.

There were reasons behind the protagonist’s initial parting. Images, past and present, like a vehicle, are driven through our minds. Reveries fused together with drugs take over, and this, mixed with the unbearable heat of New Orleans they find it hard to hold back what is embedded deep within.  It is clear how much they desire each other, and yet a crushing secret forces them to be apart.

Buttercup Bill is a slowing burning fire of a film, but the flames don’t immediately strike up. While Bennett is the star, with something of a Bridget Fonda about her – this is the first production to come out of the combined Sadie Frost and Emma Comley outfit, Blonde to Black Pictures – and though undoubtedly a flawed piece, here’s hoping it won’t be the last.