The Brown Bunny.

So I was falling asleep in the middle of Vincent Gallo’s new movie “The Brown Bunny”, when all of a sudden Cheryl Tiegs appeared on the screen. It was actually kind of a shock, because just as my mind began to recognize her famous features, her damaged goods, alcoholic, highway rest-stop whore character became visible as well. Wearing cheesy clothes and little to no makeup, Tiegs bravely tossed away her glamour girl past in order to wordlessly make out on a picnic table with Gallo. This is a woman who sold more pinup posters than Farrah Fawcett. She once had her own signature clothing line at Sears! Of course, the big question is why did she agree to it? That’s an even bigger mystery than the rationale behind Chloe Sevigny’s fateful decision to participate in this production.

This movie is kind of like a Jackson Pollack splatter painting: at first glance it just looks like a random mess, but then real art starts to peek out at you, leaving you to wonder if the artist deliberately arranged the aesthetic, or just got lucky. To be sure, there are moments in “Bunny” when most people would give serious consideration to walking out, but most people are sexual voyeurs, and so we sit and impatiently endure the questionable parts of the film in order to see what we all came for: Chloe Sevigny giving head to Gallo.

Now, blow jobs in the cinema are not all that remarkable. If you have watched ANY porn at all, you’ve seen at least one workable dick-sucking. Way back in the less-obvious ‘70’s, Marilyn Chambers became notorious for the movie “Deep Throat”. Imagine that: a whole movie devoted to head. So the early buzz around “The Brown Bunny” was that a semi-famous actress allows herself to be filmed sucking off the lead character (who also happens to be the writer/producer/director/DP). As a way to sell tickets, apparently fellatio has few peers.

But what’s truly interesting is what happens AFTER the act. That’s when the movie shifts into another gear and in fact, makes the whole thing worthwhile. Gallo almost comes off as some sort of low-end M. Night Shyamalan, with a little Gaspar Noe tossed in for flavor. He certainly gives you something to talk about when the lights come up.

There are a few things to like in this movie besides the end. Gallo’s character Bud is the motorcycle racer as cowboy, and he even treats his race bike like a mechanical steed. You never see him working on it or preparing for his next big race, not even to fill it with fuel, but he does take it out of his black van to exercise it. Even when he finally arrives at his mechanic’s shop in L.A., instead of performing any type of maintenance or prep, they just strap the machine to a stationary roller (actually, a dynamometer), and ride the bike on THAT for a few minutes. Then they herd it back into the van. I guess all his bike needs is a little attention.

And there are moments of, perhaps not exactly cinematic beauty, but interesting mixes of sound and picture as the road winds ever westward. But it really is the ending that makes the whole exercise worthwhile, and leads to further thought. At least for me. Don’t just go for the sex scene, go for the surprise. You’ll feel better about yourself when it’s over.

More later…
Paul