Anna Vareschi

Occupation

Actor

The Brown Bunny Review

By Aaron Lazenby

Excellent

By all indications, actor/director/musician/man-about-town Vincent Gallo's second full-length feature The Brown Bunny should have collapsed under the weight of its own negative hype. First, there were the reports of unsimulated fellatio between Gallo and fellow scenster Chloë Sevigny. There was the film's noxious reception at Cannes. Then, film critic and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls scribe Roger Ebert named the film the worst movie ever shown at the French fashion show/film festival. Despite this pronouncement, The Brown Bunny went on to win a special critic's prize at the Viennale Film Festival. And a week before the film's U.S. opening -- as Gallo drove a print of the film around the country to host advance screenings -- a billboard company tore down a previously approved advertisement depicting Gallo and Sevigny en flagrante.

How can a director protect 92 minutes of celluloid from such a deluge of distraction? With heart, elegance and respect for his audience; and Gallo does just that.

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