To date the only feature-film written and directed by the fascinating Bryan Johnson, "Vulgar" is one of those strange cult-releases that never really found an audience and has been more-or-less forgotten by the majority of fans and film-goers. Released seventeen years ago in the early- 2000's heyday of low-budget, independent and direct-to- video films, it's actually quite surprising that such a unique experience fell through the cracks... especially with indie-god Kevin Smith attached as a producer. "Vulgar" is a twisted and distressing thriller that pushes the audiences buttons in the best of ways. And yet... in my life I've never met anyone else whose actually seen it. Which is a shame, because despite the fact it does suffer from a cripplingly low budget and some occasion aimlessness in the structure, I found it quite enjoyable."Clerks" star Brian O'Halloran plays Will Carlson- a kid's party clown who loves entertaining children, but is struggling to make ends meet while getting absolutely no respect. In a desperate bid to make more money, he adopts the new moniker of "Vulgar the Clown" to serve as a prank entertainer for bachelor parties, and he takes on his first clients... only to find himself savagely attacked and gang raped by a ruthless father-and-son trio (Jerry Lewkowitz, Ethan Suplee, Matthew Maher) who abuse him over and over. Stuck in a crippling depression following his attack, Will is eventually given salvation after saving a child's life and becomes an overnight media darling, gaining the love and adoration he always wanted. However, his attackers learn about his new-found fame and threaten to release video of his attack to the public unless he will "perform" for them again. And so, Will must struggle with his own personal feelings of regret and guilt as he asks himself whether he will go through with it... or if he has it somewhere in him to try and murder his attackers...The film is almost beyond the concept of genre, and defies many conventions of film. It's a unique experience that takes elements of 70's exploitation, grim revenge thrillers and overt shades of horror, all while subverting it with instances of humor and lightness. A big part of why the film worked for me was it's uniqueness and strangely grounded approach to such a strange concept. The plot is a bit ridiculous, but the film plays it straight and treats the characters as real people. And it leaves you feeling truly shaken by the moments of violence and sexual assault. Many people who have gone into this film have emerged disturbed and disgusted by it, and I think a big part of that has to do with the fact that the film constantly defies expectations and goes into darker directions than you could possibly imagine. You really can't go into the movie with any pre-conceived notions. This movie is a love-letter to the twisted and the deranged, and you need to be completely open to it.The cast all do incredibly well, and the movie is a great showcase for their talents. O'Halloran continues his low-budget winning streak following his breakout hit "Clerks", and the performance he pulls in is truly remarkable. Director Johnson has a minor supporting role as Will's best friend Syd, as does Kevin Smith as an ad executive, and they are both a lot of fun. And the trio of Lewkowitz, Suplee and Maher are just wild as our villainous presence. The three are among the most slimy and disgusting characters of the past twenty years and are insanely underrated. Lewkowitz in particular being just deliciously evil and depraved. You'll love to hate them. I was also quite taken by Johnson's visual direction and sharp ear for dialog. Despite having little money to work with, Johnson has a dynamic eye for composition and flow and his guidance of the material is very well accomplished. And his writing and handling of character is sharp, witty and very efficient. It really is a shame he hasn't written or directed another film since. I'd be fascinated to see him work on a new project given the potential he shows in "Vulgar."Unfortunately, there are some major issues at play and they do bring the film down a bit for me. With a budget of only about $100,000, there's a lot of practical limitations and cost-cutting measures that needed to be made, and yet the movie doesn't seem to understand this. They try to show too much, and it becomes hard to buy a lot of what you're seeing. Everything looks a bit cheap and hokey, especially around the film's mid-point. Most blatantly being that there are a few too many sets that are clearly just made of paper and foam core. It created a bit too much of an aesthetic gap between myself and the film and it was hard to ignore. The film's audio is also questionable. While Ryan Shore's score is fantastic, the rest of the audio is very "off", and most scenes eventually have the dialog drifting and lagging behind, giving the film a strangely "dubbed" look. And I do think the movie meanders a bit too much. It loses focus on the narrative in a few key sequences that feel aimless and out of place.But ultimately... I'd be lying if I said these problems ruined the film for me. The characters are identifiable and our protagonist is endlessly likable. The performances are unanimously excellent and there's no "sore thumbs" in the entire cast. The film's grim tone is suitably oppressive and hammers home the dark themes exceptionally well. And it's generally well made outside of the issues brought about by the low budget. "Vulgar" is most certainly not a film for everyone, and it might have been forgotten by the majority. But as someone who enjoys the strange and the macabre and the weird, I'd highly recommend it to open-minded audiences. I give it a pretty decent 7 out of 10.

For Howard Stern to be repulsed by a movie, you know that you're in for something special. Vulgar is the proper title for this work, which features a clown being gang raped. Kevin Smith produced this stomach churning work. Will makes a living as a birthday clown at kids parties, when he comes up with the idea to expand into the world of bachelor parties. He dresses in lingerie and strips to garters to fool the client into believing that he is gay. One day, while walking in his strange outfit, he is brutally assaulted by a guy and his two sons. They videotape the attack and warn him not to go to the police or they will embarrass him with the tape. He later rescues a kid and becomes the hero clown on the news. As a result, he gets a TV show, and his rapists extort him for money, while holding the tape over his head. He sets up a meeting in order to resolve the issue, and it leads to a silly ending. Bad acting and camera work make Vulgar a waste of time.

This movie has gotten horrible reviews. Just the main premise of the story is sick and revolting. Looking at the back of the DVD it is clear they were hard up for positive reviews since the two featured read "...a truly and thankfully a one of a kind work." and "An ugly, revolting movie." This should give anyone with high expectations for this movie an obvious clue as too what they are going to watch. The reviews on websites such as "rotten tomatoes" are abysmal to be kind, not only are they bad but some compare the script and camera work to a bad pornographic movie. That being said, I liked it. A little bit of background on the movie and why I wanted to see it is that it was executive produced by Kevin Smith of Clerks fame. I am fan of his and the fact that his name was attached was enough to get me interested. Also I was intrigued by poster art, it boasted that it was "the hit of the 2000 Toronto Film Festival" and sported the tag line "Everybody loves a clown...some more than others" and portrays a man in clown makeup pointing a gun downward. I have had an interest in clowns as being sort of scary things that travel with carnivals and freak shows, which is what I actually hoped this movie was about. However, the love for clowns the movies tag line referred too was actually in relation to the pivotal scene in the movie when the clown known as Vulgar thinks he is going to a bachelor party. When he arrives he is gang raped and video taped by a father and his two dim witted sons (think of the famous scene in Deliverance). This is the main event, so to speak, of the whole movie. He is left bloody and humiliated by these guys and tries to go on with his life and never to mention it. A day or so later, after he had pulled himself back together, he went back to doing children's parties, when he arrives at his first party there are cops surrounding the house and long story short he ends up saving a little girl from her father who was holding her and her mother hostage making him famous now and he is approached by a Hollywood producer to star in his own children's show. Once he is on T.V. the demented father sees him on T.V. and contacts him and uses the video he had filmed of him as blackmail. They had made him say degrading remarks about himself and that apparently is what they were going to use. So that in a nut shell is what the movie is about, and I completely understand why it is probably looked on by most as just trash. For a Saturday night viewing the movie was enjoyable for me, I cant see myself ever wanting to watch it again and the rape scene was cringe inducing but I had a few laughs also. The main character is played by the actor who also played the main character of Dante in Clerks and included cameos from both Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob) and for fans of Kevin Smith movies would be worth watching this movie just once, as I did. The writer and director of this movie is Bryan Johnson. This is the only movie he has written or directed which may be a good reflection on how this movie was received since he has yet to make another film. Until this film he was a production assistant on Mallrats and Chasing Amy and seems he was given this opportunity by Smith to make his film. The DVD contains an interesting bonus documentary titled Judge Not: In Defense of Dogma with Smith and the actors from that movie, including Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, that was exclusive to this DVD that looked at the controversy that had surrounded Dogma and was apparently something that was intended to be on that DVD but was not finished and included on this which was also a nice addition. Overall, this movie is for a specific group of people and should not be taken seriously. The budget is low and the story is odd to say the least but if you watch it with a sense of humor, and not on a full stomach, it could be enjoyable to the right audience.

Will Carlson is a birthday clown who is having some troubles. He can't pay the rent, his mom hates him, and everybody gives him a difficult time. He gets the idea of being an adult entertainer party clown. On his first job he is tortured and raped by an insane father and his two sons. He is too embarrassed to call the authorities, so he keeps the entire incident a secret. Some time later, he saves the life of a little girl who is held hostage by her father and becomes famous and gets his own show. Finally, his dream has come true. He gets a call from the family of rapists who had videotaped his performance and tell him to give them a share of his money. He does, but then they also want a repeat reenactment of that fateful night or they will leak the tape to the press. This film doesn't try to be special. It isn't stylized, or done artfully or tastefully. It can be considered many things, but one thing the film can't be criticized for is being pretentious. This is, to put it properly, an old-school exploitation grindhouse style picture. This film is very effective and quite shocking. It certainly is not a film for everybody. It is a hell of an experience. The film is ugly, rough, grainy, and dimly lit. The acting is very intense and the characters are often quite abrasive. The plot of the film is quite realistic to an extent. The rape scenes are pretty horrific and brutal, some of the roughest I've seen in fact. The spends enough time getting us to sympathize and feel sorry for the character of Will Carlson. His roommate(Bryan Johnson, the director of VULGAR) is probably the best character in the film. Ethan Suplee and Matthew Maher are both pretty creepy as the two rapists, Jerry Lewkowitz is quite nasty as the father, and Brian O'Halloran gives a pretty strong performance. In fact, the only serious issue I had with this film is that it tries to be a comedy at times. Ultimately, the attempts at humor come off really poorly. The humor in this film feels out of place and is distracting at times when it shouldn't be. I guess I could call this a black comedy, but the film is actually really disturbing and difficult to watch. Maybe the comedy element was added to make the whole film seem even more wrong. As it is, it's a merciless film and is nasty. If you are a fan of exploitation you will probably love this film. For others, you could probably do with this film.Pros: -very engaging and moving at times -decent acting -well established dark tone -intense -a guilty pleasureCons: -unneeded humor -graphic violence, rape, and sexual torture may be too much for a lot of viewers -bad marketing