“Greener Grass” : Are Things Really Better On The Other Side?

It’s a very unsettling suburb depicted at the beginning of the film Greener Grass. Down at a kid’s soccer game, everyone and everything is brightly colored and looks straight out of the film Stepford Wives. Two close-knit mothers are sitting together each with a full mouth of braces. Things get more peculiar quickly when the son of one of these mothers, Jill, drops on the playing field and ceases movement, eyes open. The baby in Jill’s hands is called beautiful and highly beloved by the other mother and the child itself is just promptly handed over as a gift. Oh and there’s also a mysterious grocery bagger murderer.

At a barbecue birthday party, you see the lasting jealousy of the mother who now has the baby, renamed Paige now. All is seemingly random and unclear in this universe all its own. Eerie music plays as the residents continue acting inexplicably and one thing becomes very clear; the people pleasing is very extreme, almost competitive. Why do they immediately give in to the desires and opinions of those around them? Are they brainwashed?

Other completely out-of-the-box community happenings includes waiters crying over spilled food asking if the two main couples dining were “going to tell” before the couples proceed to eat the food off the floor with their silverware. The school janitor dusts off the unreal rectangle bushes in front of the school and the teacher is named Miss Human. On TV are ads for “Baby Bird” baby food which is pre-chewed by 100% real mothers, as well as shows like Bald Men and Bouquets and Kids With Knives. 

Bizarre jingles continue in the background of scene transitions in this film which can only be described as a mixture of Wes Anderson, David Lynch, the Desperate Housewives series, and the Black Mirror series. The constant bright colors everywhere in this surreal town just serve to add to all the mystery of this quirky, absurdist comedy. What is the story behind the sudden change of Jill’s child turning into a golden retriever, who continues the kid’s life just the same or Lisa pretending to be pregnant with a soccer ball which she gives birth to and raises, naming Twilson? 

Watch as the braces start to come off as their world unravels quickly from here, leaving many questions as politeness is abandoned and madness descends in bright pink and mint green. Everything is unpredictable and uncertain for these quirky residents all too eager to please. Is there a puppetmaster above their humble town or a deeper, more personal story to their matching outfits and inhuman behaviors?