10.04.04
Movie Review: The Brown Bunny

Imagine 150 people crowded into the George Eastman House’s Dryden Theater, all with one thought on their mind: “Is Vincent Gallo’s penis as creepy as the rest of him?” *

To recap: A 2-hour cut of The Brown Bunny debuted at Cannes in 2003. Roger Ebert declared it to be “the worst film ever shown in competition in the history of the festival.” Gallo called Ebert a fat pig and put a curse on his colon. The discourse pretty much went downhill from there.

In August Gallo put up a billboard in Los Angles that was ruled obscene and taken down a week later, then went on the Howard Stern show and freaked out on a caller from his native Buffalo, then related an anecdote about being arrested for public masturbation as a teenager.

Well, the man is a marketing genius, but how is the movie?

Well, on one hand, Gallo successfully recaptures both the spirit and the aesthetics of 60’s and 70’s road movies, such as Easy Rider and Two-Lane Blacktop.

On the other hand… why would anybody want to do that? Those movies are terrible.

Gallo plays a motorcycle racer who travels across country. Along the way he meets some girls. He arrives in Los Angeles, there is another incident of public masturbation and the credits roll. (And I start shouting about it being the second movie I’ve seen this summer that ripped off a Twilight Zone plot.)

Actually, I declare the entire movie to be an incident of public masturbation. Gallo has the gift of having a serial killer’s face and voice of a matinee idol. This will sustain a movie for approximately 30 seconds. After that it’s all Gordon Lightfoot songs and bugs smashing against the windshield. But, you know, like, poetic bugs.

Bonus questions for 11th Grade English class students in the year 2024:

What do you think the title means?
What is the significance of the bunnies Bud encounters during his journey? What do each symbolize?
Give at least four examples of the use of foreshadowing.
Identify the theme of the film (M vs. M, M vs. N or M vs. Hs).

*Yes.