Bouya Rage Bomb follows a 19-year-old wrestling obsessed protagonist named Bonnie in small town Summersville. Bonnie is forced into the responsibilities of adulthood when he must come up with $70 to see his wrestling idol Nicholas Rage at a meet and greet. 

This fundraising doesn’t come without a number of twists and turns all of which are completely insurmountable without the help of his friend Bonzo and caretaker Sandy. 

This indie period piece seemingly ripped straight from Jared Hess’ filmography will surely spur feelings of nostalgia for young and old, wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike.

Nic Wiley is the man behind the magic, credited as writing the script, heading the production as the director, and tweaking the final project on and off for years as the editor and visual effects specialist. 

Wiley is a recent alumni from Missouri State University and he’s dipped his toes into local filmmaking before, however, Bouya Rage Bomb is undoubtedly his biggest and most ambitious project yet. 

The low budget production was difficult at times, like when modern cars would drive by biking shots, ruining the desired early 2000s time period of the film and ruining the take.

However, Wiley looks back at the experience positively, saying locations like St. Agnes’ gym is what he had envisioned for the film.

The movie ran at the recently reopened College Station Theaters from April 11 to April 17. Using this as a learning opportunity, Wiley put a survey at the end of his film where he observed, “A lot of people said that the pacing was a little slow.”

This feedback along with the numerous other points mentioned in the 55 responses gathered has given Wiley lots to tweak in recent weeks. 

“It’s like a whole other round of editing to do.” Wiley commented. “[It’s] little small things that I didn’t even think of at first.”

The brunt work so far has been better utilizing music and sound effects in as many places as possible to make the film feel as fast paced and lively as it needed to be.

This project will keep evolving and changing until Wiley feels it’s ready to be submitted to festivals where he’s hopeful his film can impress audiences and maybe even get him distribution.

But first, Bouya Rage Bomb will be coming to Alamo Drafthouse where he’s already impressed their managers enough to get it screened in the coming months. 

So whether you love Jared Hess-esque coming of age films, awkward silences and “little boy humor”, or you just want to support a local filmmaker and see a Mother’s Brewing Company sticker in a movie theater near you, make sure to keep an eye out on Alamo Drafthouse’s website for when tickets drop.