The Brown Bunny (2003)

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Director: Vincent Gallo

Screenplay: Vincent Gallo

Cast: Vincent Gallo as Bud Clay; Chloë Sevigny as Daisy; Cheryl Tiegs as Lilly; Elizabeth Blake as Rose; Anna Vareschi as Violet; Mary Morasky as Mrs. Lemon

The Brown Bunny...a very banal title, actually in reference to a pet rabbit the main female character had, this figure the obsession of motorcycle racer Bud Clay (Vincent Gallo) who only materialises as Chloë Sevigny near the end but instead becomes a spectre hanging around this existential, slow cinema mystery. The term "Brown Bunny" however, if referenced amongst knowledgeable cineastes, evokes one of the most infamous premieres at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival where the second directorial feature of character actor Vincent Gallo played. Gallo is someone who has always come across as deliberately annoying or offending people on purpose, rather than a lot more problematic figures in cinema history who have actually done absolutely despicable things or sincerely say offensive ideas under the guise they sincerely believe in them. If "shit stirring" every got into the English dictionary, Vincent Gallo's portrait should be sat next to the definition just in lieu to how the fallout to The Brown Bunny screening went, between the apparent caterwauling and boos from critics, to the ongoing trading of barbed witticisms between Gallo and the late film critic Roger Ebert.

Question is, did The Brown Bunny have any actual merit beyond the controversy, stemming from the notorious ending sequence involving explicit (real) oral sex,and what does one reflect upon when you revisit the film a decade plus after its buzz of notoriety?

The immediate issue with that answer is that, well, ninety percent of the film is incredibly minimal almost experimental (if not experimental) cinema which is entirely on mood, and eventually is dependent on that finale to work. Aware the notorious Cannes cut was originally around two hours, having thirty minutes trimmed away in places like the opening race, a lot of The Brown Bunny is Gallo in character driving around various locations in numerous US states, a cross between Chris Petit's 1979 minimalist road movie Radio On, right down to vignettes with characters the protagonist encounters, with an extreme interpretation of Michelangelo Antonioni, befitting as set in the US and a desert at one point this immediately evokes Zabriskie Point (1970) if the Italian maestro had gutted all the free love and counterculture symbolism of that film.

Of actual praise, on the get go, is that The Brown Bunny is at least incredibly well made with a distinctive style, really emphasising the bold creativity of American independent cinema even into the 2000s. Gallo shot the film in 16mm and as a result, with every shot looking like it was sun kissed, the grainy images created are absolutely enticing. In the malaise the entire film is, a languid pace of minimal dialogue and that which is there through Gallo being very quiet onscreen, it would be easy to block out how much of the American landscape is also used, from the urban to the rural, from motorways to suburbia, or how appropriately melancholic and effective the soundtrack choices are, particularly the country songs.

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Gallo, in spite of his reputation and notoriety back at this time, which including (whether serious or not) rumours of him wanting to sell his own semen or bigger controversies of him saying offensive comments, had a fascinating career as a character actor. He's not been helped by his bluntness or his lack of filter in his comments, which has imbued accusations of being an utter egotist. Yet you look at his filmography and its fascinating - he has been with Claire Denis in her English/bilingual films with the exception of High Life (2018), like Trouble Every Day (2001); he made an impression in Emir Kusturica's American film Arizona Dreams (1993) just for the scene where he recreates the crop-duster sequence from North By Northwest (1959) onstage; or his interesting turn in Tetro (2009), one of Francis Ford Coppola's "experimental" films. He is also in The Brown Bunny, for any accusations of ego onscreen or how uncomfortable the finale scenes are, incredibly quiet and even isolated in terms of how he plays the character of Bud Clay, to the point of extreme introversion that few director-writer-actors would willingly want to portray. Even if introversion can be egotistical, a woo-is-me aura that could accidentally be created or unconscious, Gallo's scenes with the few character interactions with his mumbling and guardedness are so distinct especially when little of the film is with any "action" or "scenario" that the mood tempers this potential issue.

The content of the first three-quarters is entirely minimalistic - starting with the aforementioned scene of Gallo racing, and spending his time drifting across the country aimlessly. He shuns most contact, as with the case of passing various female sex workers on the street, or acts in a difficult strained way, asking the last of the former he meets to just follow him about before he abruptly changes his mind. A character called Daisy (Chloë Sevigny) is for the most part an off-screen figure, known only through her elderly parents and the titular bunny. It's slow, at times exasperating, yet its intentionally a mood piece, coincidentally running current to a trend in Gus Van Sant's filmography of a similar style, between Gerry (2002) and Paranoid Park (2007), of a similar obfuscation and emphasis on mood. The exact slow pace of time is felt according to regular time outside of cinema in The Brown Bunny, the emotion more found in that aforementioned score. Also in lieu to where the film ultimately leads to, a tragedy that haunts the lead, The Brown Bunny ultimately is a film structured on this trauma and only wraps together coherently depending on its reveal.

[Major Spoiler Warning]

Of course, the denouement is notorious for, when Daisy finally appears, an explicit sex scene including actual oral that riled up many*. It was a huge risk for Chloë Sevigny, as an actress with a considerable stature at the time of the film, where a huge distinction is still made between actresses in cinema and actresses who star in adult films where real sex takes place; even those films which have real sex that aren't in the adult genre, it is still a tendency of non-actors or unknowns, as Canadian broadcaster Sook-Yin Lee found when, staring in Shortbus (2006), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation considered firing her for that film's real sex scenes she participated in until fans and celebrities criticised them. Thankfully, having talked about this film in the last few years, Chloë Sevigny not only has no regrets about The Brown Bunny, saying the scene was done with care for her concerns, but also, as an actress I have always liked, she's never been out of work.

It's also an uncomfortable sequence because Gallo's character starts using misogynistic language in the midst of it, with violence felt within the scene, but its revealed as the damaged trauma of a boyfriend who lost his girlfriend (and unborn child) in the midst of a part where she was gang raped, a literal phantom as he ends up curled up in the foetal position in that room.

[Spoilers End]

The finale, when all the reasons behind Gallo's character acting his way is revealed, is abrupt, never brought up as little premonitions in the film before, and all a sudden jolt after the trance of before. Does it work? Entirely subjective, but Gallo's at least trying a very complex characterisation. Any accusations of ego is also undercut by how much of the film he (even if unintentional) comes off as vulnerable and disconnected from his environment; and in lieu to the revelation, he builds and argubly justifies why the film is structured as it is. Its, from then on, where it is subjective; a lot of the notoriety and anger at Cannes, the crowds there at a drop of a pin to jeer an unconventional film by all accounts, just comes from how extremely glacial the initial cut probably was and, yeah, the whole issue of depicting real sex in cinema with two known actors. In truth, with the layer of subjectivity that can be a virtue and a flaw with American independent cinema, it's so open to interpretation you the viewer are forced to think about The Brown Bunny long afterwards. No wonder Gallo took his ball home after the welcome he got, whether you agree with this review or hate the film - he only made one other film after this at this point in his career, Promises Written in Water (2010), which he screened at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, but purposely hasn't released it since.

Abstract Spectrum: Minimalistic

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

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