Is Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny as bad as everyone's making it out to be? Its Cannes Festival premiere welcomed by catcalls, boos, and a litany of the most scathing and virulent pans, many critcs (stately, plump Roger Ebert among them) considered it the worst feature in the entire history of the Cannes International Film Festival. After the movie's less than frosty reception, Gallo apologized for the film and vowed never to make another. The next day, Gallo fervently defended his film. "I'm still very moved by it," he said.
There are other defenders of The Brown Bunny, but one wonders if it will even see a small and narrow theatrical release, considering that the climax of the film consists of a graphic ten minute fellatio sequence starring, of course, Gallo, and his co-star Chloe Sevigny. The first film maudit of 2003.
Call me perverse, but I would really like to see this (and not just for the blow-job either). We need more outlandish ideas, Russian roulette with a movie camera --not being afraid to fall flat on your face, not falling victim to the fear of failure, not giving a shit. Vincent Gallo, a lot of people consider you a prick, and you may well be, but you decided to make the movie you really wanted to make and pissed off a lot of people in the process. For that I salute you. I think I'll be watching Buffalo '66 tonight.