{image1}When we're in pain, life moves slowly. When we're feeling tortured, time creeps even slower. Capturing that pervasive temporal rot is something that Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" does extremely well.
Written, directed, edited and produced by Gallo ("Buffalo 66"), who also stars as motorcycle racer Bud Clay, "The Brown Bunny" does feel a bit self-indulgent at times and some may write off the film as a Gallo ego trip. Many critics called it the worst ever to screen at Cannes and Gallo and Roger Ebert's verbal volley only drew more negative attention.
The 90-minute flick opens with some jittery, and exceptionally lengthy, footage of a cycle race in New Hampshire and follows Clay back across the country as he heads home to Los Angeles alone in a van.
Cities come and go, landscapes pass outside the windows and Bud Clay remains stone-faced. He stops to use the bathroom or to eat some food, maybe gas up the van, but he talks to almost no one.
Except that every now and again he falteringly engages a woman (one is played by Cheryl Tiegs!) in a brief conversation -- or simply strolls up to her and starts kissing her -- hoping ... hoping for what, we don't know. And neither does he, apparently, because these encounters are uniformly brief and unsatisfying, in fact repellent to him, in the end.
In Vegas he tinkers with the idea of picking up a prostitute, but will this do the trick for a man as deeply troubled as Bud Clay?
We suspect, but don't really know for sure, that he wants to get home to his girlfriend Daisy (Chloe Sevigny), with whom we, again, suspect there's a problem. We're out there alone on the road in the darkness, just like Clay.
While everything comes together in a jarring -- to say the least -- finale, the bulk of "The Brown Bunny" is so slow-paced, so obtuse at times, that it might be difficult for many to watch, much less appreciate.
In retrospect, Gallo has made a film that deftly represents how pain can drain us of vigor, of hope and of the ability to connect with others. Sadly, his movie will likely do the same for many of its viewers.
And, parents will definitely want to leave the kids home for this one. Trust us.
"The Brown Bunny" opens Friday, Oct. 15 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
