Barber Westchester: A Hidden Gem

Review by Cameron Zhang (he/they), Philadelphia, USA
April 12, 2024
 

Barber Westchester is an indie animated film created by Jonni Peppers. It tells an extremely complicated and confusing story about Barber, who was born into a cult and loves astronomy (which is like their biggest passion ever). They get an internship at NASA, only to find out space is a lie created by the government to do whatever they want.

The primary gist of the story is that Barber is trying to reconcile with their life after the dominant narrative that they imagined for themselves is thwarted. A lot of things happen afterwards, not connected by any clear plotline. There is a talking mole who becomes Barber’s bestie, Barber gets these really weird psychedelic dreams, there are strange alien things that keep bothering them, they meet these strange gay couples, they’re a bad sibling, the mayor tries to take over the world with these clay replacements of real people, etc.

This film is not explicitly about being queer, (although it features many queer and fun characters), but it is very anti-conformist in its storytelling. Although the film raises a lot of questions with its random plot devices (space being fake, the brain eating parrots, the cult thing), it is much more about disengaging from these questions.

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Barber is not the center of their universe, unlike other stories, and things happen with no distinct reason just like in real life. They are forced to realize this and figure out how to keep moving forward. This film echoes the creator’s personal experiences about being queer and having a dominant idea in mind about what life should be like, and having that disrupted. Although it feels very existential at times, it is also extremely heartfelt and “honest”.

This film is more about the experience of actually watching it than the story itself. It is extremely funny and the animation is super creative and takes on many different mediums. The music is also very awesome and silly. I do not think everybody would love this film, but I do think everybody should at least watch the first ten minutes of it because it is still extremely captivating and attention-holding. Personally, Barber Westchester is definitely one of my favorite things I’ve watched and I think it’s kind of a shame it’s so underrated (but that is just kind of how indie animation films are).