Multiply the weirdest movie you've ever seen by three and you'll get "The Brown Bunny."
Filmmaker and Buffalo native Vincent Gallo stars in "Brown Bunny," his second stab at direction. It was coldly received this past year at the Cannes film festival.
Gallo's first film, "Buffalo '66," featured Gallo as a recently released convict who was indebted to a bookie after the Buffalo Bills kicker missed a Super Bowl-winning field goal attempt. When he visits his parents upon being released, he abducts a tap dancer, played by Christina Ricci, on his city-wide search for a bathroom. He then forces her to pretend to be his wife.
Things don't get much more normal in "The Brown Bunny."
Gallo plays Bud Clay, a professional motorcycle racer who's on a cross-country journey back to his home in L.A. On his drive to the golden state, he encounters a series of women with whom he has incredibly brief and acutely affectionate relationships.
After Bud's race he talks with a local gas station attendant, Violet, played by Anna Vareschi. His seemingly innocent conversation with Violet transforms into much more when Bud tenderly asks her to join him on his trek to California.
Bud presses his lips against Violet's with such adoring passion it seems the two were destined to be together. However, when she goes in the house to get her clothes, Bud and his motorcycle-equipped Dodge Ram depart without the headstrong Violet.
At a rest stop somewhere in the Midwest, Bud sits next to Lilly, a lonesome middle-aged beauty, played by Cheryl Tiegs. Without speech, the two are enraptured in each other's caresses and kisses with the graceful ardor of devoted lovers. Afterward, Bud sinks his teary-eyed face into Lilly's embracing chest. He gets up and leaves without saying a word.
In California he picks up Rose, a street-corner prostitute played by Elizabeth Blake. He takes her out to lunch, but visibly distraught, drops her off at a subsequent corner when he begins to emotionally crumble.
It's clear that Bud has a lot more on his mind than just a quick female fix. And it's obvious that these flowers cannot blossom in Bud's clay pot. There's only one flower who can thrive in Bud's dementia-driven love life.
Bud's warped and continuous craving for affection stems from a void left by his former lover Daisy, played by Chloe Sevigny, who is no longer a part of Bud's life. He's haunted by the tender and loving flashbacks of him and Daisy embracing, kissing, touching.
He makes a stop at Daisy's parents' house where neither they, nor he, really know what happened to Daisy. He focuses on Daisy's brown bunny, which she left behind, denoting her neglectful and abandoning behavior traits.
The movie, like its characters, is strange. Really strange. There are several multi-minute sequences in his van or focused on a facial expression in which really nothing happens. Sometimes all you can see is a splattered bug on a windshield or Bud's delicate sadness through a subtly fixed frown.
There is very little dialogue; when the characters do speak, it's sometimes impossible to understand what is being said. The speech is often muffled and encased in Bud's loving embraces with the women.
But what is being said is unimportant. Gallo conveys his message through a solemn gesture, a facial expression or a panoramic shot that seemingly reveals nothing but the loneliness of the open road.
The movie is sometimes bewilderingly slow, with no action, dialogue or entertaining sex scenes, which may cause some moviegoers to get bored. But there's an ethereal beauty to Gallo's movie-making silence and stillness. What's shown on the movie screen doesn't portray the real story. That is within Bud. Gallo's unconventional moviemaking techniques succeed in finding the pulse of Bud's throbbing heart.
Some might call the "The Brown Bunny" a movie that tries too hard to be artsy. It isn't. It's beautiful in a dark way, erotic in a sexless way, and profound in a silent way.
