Obscured Pictures/ NYFFWerner Herzog is always himself, but Bucking Fastard sees Herzog Herzoging harder than he has in years. At this point, the New German Cinema pioneer is best known as a documentarian — more specifically, as a deep, gravelly voice narrating said documentaries in his much-beloved, much-imitated German accent. But before he was a meme, Herzog was an upstart. And his latest film takes him all the way back to his roots. In 1970, Herzog released Even Dwarfs Started Small, his second feature film. Shot in black-and-white in the Canary Islands, it’s a bizarre, cryptic movie about a group of little people who basically start a riot and run wild on the muddy grounds of a remote institution of some kind. We know that it was influenced by Herzog’s documentary work of the period, but beyond that, its meaning is wholly personal to the director — just like Bucking Fastard, which is dedicated to the similarly intuitive David Lynch. The inspiration for this tale comes from real life as well: Our lead characters, Jean (Kate Mara) and Joan Holbrooke (Rooney Mara), are based on a pair of real-life twins named Freda and Greta Chaplin, who — like their movie counterparts — not only looked and dressed alike, but spoke, moved, and seemingly thought in unison as well. Although it was pre-internet and therefore quickly forgotten, the Chaplin sisters achieved brief tabloid fame in the early ‘80s after their next-door neighbor (and the object of both sisters’ romantic obsession) placed a restraining order on them. Defending themselves in court, they misspoke in unison, calling the plaintiff a “bucking fastard.” Herzog was there in the courtroom, having become obsessed with the sisters and tracking them down via a newspaper photo. In his 2022 autobiography, he wrote that “you could have folded a picture of them, and the two halves would’ve matched,” and scenes in the movie of the Maras bumping into furniture as they attempt to vacuum together and of Domnhall Gleeson opening a sardine can after their four-handed attempt ends in a screaming match are both taken from Herzog’s real-life experiences hanging out with the Chaplins at their (shared, obviously) flat. The movie also opens with a courtroom sequence where Jean and Joan describe the spicy circumstances that led to them trashing their next-door neighbor Gareth Mulroney’s (Orlando Bloom, wholly convincing as an aging cad) car. As it turns out, Gareth was sleeping with both sisters simultaneously. But it wasn’t jealousy between Jean and Joan that drove them to the edge. They were in bed with him at the same time, after all. It was that the bucking fastard had the audacity to carry on a relationship with another woman, and eventually marry her, while crawling under the fence between their houses to visit them at night. From there, we fast-forward about 18 months: The restraining order has been granted, and Jean and Joan (who are not twins) have moved to a new city, where they’re quite pleased to be recognized on the street. “Are we famous?” they ask each other, both knowing the answer. Aside from being moved from England to Ireland and the ‘80s to the present day, up to this point Bucking Fastard has remained tethered to reality — one that’s stranger than fiction, but reality nonetheless. From here, however, the film drifts into the realm of fairy tale and fable, culminating in Jean and Loan, side by side, digging a tunnel through the side of a mountain with nothing but hand tools (another Herzogian image) in search of a land where true love really does exist. Although they’re together, Jean and Joan are both desperately lonely (and horny, which the other sister cannot help with). They’re dreamers, and their obsessive longing for true connection and understanding make them Herzogian protagonists, as does the cruel irony of the fact that they’d probably have to separate to find the men of their dreams. Afraid to make the leap, they remain united, one hand on each side of the vacuum-cleaner handle, always together and forever alone. The uncanny nature of the Maras’ simultaneous performance in Bucking Fastard never quite wears off, and the film remains deeply weird up until its enigmatic, but obviously symbolic, ending. This is an asset, not a shortcoming, partially because it’s such a delight watching Rooney and Kate Mara lock in to the unusual demands of their dual role. The high level of trust and complete symbiosis between the real-life sisters is fascinating to watch: It’s great fun imagining them practicing together at home or in a hotel room, giggling before getting serious as they try to walk, talk, and make matching facial expressions all at the same time. The impression they make is hard to forget — just like the twins who inspired them. Bucking Fastard premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, and screened at the New York Film Festival. It is currently looking for a distributor.