The Brown Bunny (2003)

Shot in 16 mm with a handheld camera, The Brown Bunny (2003) is an experimental film set against a bleak American landscape where a lone man embarks on an existential exploration of the delicate interaction between lost souls. Director, actor, writer, musician and auteur Vincent Gallo stars as Bud Clay, a motorbike racer heading to California in search of a lost love. He’s a silent, achingly fragile character forging fleeting and ultimately empty relationships with similarly broken women along the way. These deflowered femmes include Lilly (supermodel Cheryl Tiegs), Rose (Elizabeth Blake), Violet (Anna Vareschi), and Daisy (Chloë Sevigny). The latter lady is particularly mamorable since she exposes her bare breasts during various sex scenes. In one, two dudes take advantage of the passed out babe while a blacked-out Bud just stands there and watches. In the film’s more famous scene, Mr. Gallo feels up Ms. Sevigny’s nude boobs as she prepares to go down on him. And yes, the blond performs an utterly real, open-jawed, tonsil-tickling Hoover job on his fully erect peen before swallowing! Despite the unrated flick’s bare-bones narrative, its effort is admirable. Even with its at-times almost suffocating sense of sadness, this classic road trip pic has a reflective, soulful tone disguised as an exercise in narcissism. Granted, the movie was not received well when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then, Gallo cut 26 minutes from the initial 118-minute runtime. The re-edited version was an improvement, proving less in more. The same applies to clothing!