On DVD, ‘Bellflower’ burns rubber while going nowhere

‘The Road Warrior’ informs Evan Glodell’s drama of restless youth.

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Are you prepared for the coming apocalypse and the Road Warrior-style hellscape to follow? In 2009, Patton Oswalt described how the prospect of cannibal marauders on nitro-trucks motivated the comedian to lose weight and go off Prozac: “I don’t want to be out in the wasteland fat and depressed.”

In the ominous, low-budget drama Bellflower, antiheroes Woodrow and Aidan (Evan Glodell and Tyler Dawson) show more optimism about the end of civilization. The underemployed friends want to get ahead of Armageddon, so they devote their spare time to jerry-rigging a flamethrower and converting a muscle car into a reinforced, weaponized vehicle worthy of Mad Max.

With Bellflower, writer/director/star Glodell brings an ugly but original vision to the familiar genre of disaffected young people. Like an amped-up, customized automobile with no muffler, Bellflower makes a powerful, high-volume statement without getting very good mileage. Bumped from Atlanta theatrical release in September, Bellflower comes roaring back on DVD this week.