"...this memorable feature directorial debut has the air of their work, namely “The Righteous Gemstones.” In his own way, Rapaport has also concocted a strange American family and committed to an absurd tone, in which what is horrific or funny can alternate without being that obvious. “Hippo”‘s sense of what is interesting is equally anarchistic as it is dry, like an unholy fusion of “A Clockwork Orange” and “Napoleon Dynamite... the work of a budding provocateur and American satirist with an addictive sense of bizarre character building and atmosphere first and foremost. Just as Hippo is sickly fascinated with our world, so are we with his.

-- Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com

HIPPO was shot in 15 days in State College, Pennsylvania—located in the aptly named region of Happy Valley. Shooting took place in and around the home of the director’s grandmother, Margaret—who has lived in the same house since the 1950s. Though my mother would protest, HIPPO is my attempt to capture the tumult of my teenage years. I grew up in a very religious community, so 'coming of age' and learning about things like sex did not exactly come standard. There was a lot of guesswork. A lot of misunderstandings. A lot of late nights on the Internet. A lot of shame.

Q&A with the director, Mark Rapaport, and maybe even his mother and grandmother follows the screening.