Rich Ronat’s debut feature, The Clutterbucks, imagines a sharply divided America in 2075, decades after political tensions have escalated into a second depression and civil war. The nation has fractured into two fortified territories: the “scarlet” states, which have rejected technological progress and remain culturally frozen in the 1980s, and the “cobalt” states, which have embraced innovation to the point of establishing colonies across the solar system. This exaggerated divide forms the backdrop for a Thanksgiving gathering in El Paso that quickly unravels into chaos.
Twyla and Rufus Clutterbuck live in the tech‑averse scarlet zone with their youngest daughter, Adalynn. Twyla, determined to keep the household afloat despite economic strain and Rufus’s lingering injuries, maintains a tight grip on the family’s routines. Their world is defined by outdated technology and a constant stream of partisan news that shapes their understanding of the wider conflict.
Their cobalt‑state children arrive carrying complications of their own. Billy, a rising football player, returns with Christina, an older horticulturist specialising in cannabis. His decision to leave the sport due to declining cognitive health—and the revelation that Christina is pregnant—adds tension to an already strained visit. Maddie arrives newly sober and committed to her recovery programme, bringing her own emotional weight to the gathering.
The family’s uneasy reunion becomes far more intense when a new outbreak forces the scarlet zone into a six‑month lockdown. Confined together, the Clutterbucks’ political conditioning, personal grievances, and cultural differences erupt into a domestic standoff. Ronat uses this claustrophobic setup to explore how misinformation, partisan media, and entrenched beliefs shape behaviour, with a fictional news channel blaring through the house and fuelling misunderstandings.
The Clutterbucks blends dystopian world‑building with broad comedy, using satire to highlight the extremes of cultural and political division. By pushing familiar dynamics into sci‑fi absurdity, the film reflects contemporary anxieties through a heightened lens. The result is a chaotic, darkly comic portrait of a family—and a nation—struggling to navigate a future shaped by conflict, exaggeration, and fractured identity.
