''Vulgar'' is a 2000 American
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
written and directed by
Bryan Johnson and produced by
Monica Hampton
Monica Hampton is a New York-based narrative and documentary filmmaker. Her documentary film credits include Michael Moore's '' Fahrenheit 9/11'', ''Heavy Metal in Baghdad'', the 2008 documentary on Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda and the 2 ...
for
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film ''Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, co ...
's
View Askew Productions
View Askew Productions is an American film and television production company founded by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier in 1994. Actors Ben Affleck, Jeff Anderson, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Walter Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Bri ...
. It features multiple actors from the
View Askewniverse
The View Askewniverse is a fictional universe created by writer/director Kevin Smith, featured in several films, comics and a television series; it is named for Smith's production company, View Askew Productions. The characters Jay and Silent ...
. The film is the tale of the character Vulgar, a clown who appeared in the original View Askew Productions logo. Though not a Kevin Smith film, it stars several actors that were cast in other View Askew Productions, such as
Brian O'Halloran
Brian Christopher O'Halloran (born December 20, 1969) is an American actor, producer, and podcaster best known for playing Dante Hicks in Kevin Smith's debut 1994 film '' Clerks'' and its 2006 and 2022 sequels '' Clerks II'' and '' Clerks III' ...
as the lead character, Smith himself as a gay TV executive,
Ethan Suplee
Ethan Suplee (; born May 25, 1976) is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''American History X'', ''Remember the Titans'', ''John Q'', '' The Wolf of Wall Street'', ''Without a Paddle'', and several ...
as one of the antagonists,
Jason Mewes
Jason Edward Mewes (born June 12, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, film producer, and podcaster. He is best known for playing Jay, the vocal half of the duo Jay and Silent Bob, in longtime friend Kevin Smith's films.
Early life
Mewes was ...
as a car wash employee, and writer/director Bryan Johnson in a supporting role as Syd.
In 2016, Johnson announced plans to create a sequel to ''Vulgar'' despite him saying in an interview that he was not going to make a sequel.
Plot
Will Carlson is an around-30 loser who lives in a duplex house in a rundown neighborhood in New Jersey, where he ekes out a living as a birthday party
clown
A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms.
History
The most ancient clowns have been found in ...
in order to pay the rent for his abusive mother's nursing home and the rent on his rundown house. Despite the difficulties of the job, clowning is Will's one escape from the realities of his miserable existence: Will genuinely likes kids, and takes great joy from making them happy on their birthdays.
Struggling to make ends meet, but not wanting to give up his dream job, Will comes up with the idea to be a "bachelor party clown." Will's idea is that men throwing
bachelor parties
A bachelor party (in the United States and sometimes in Canada), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia), is a party held/arranged by th ...
can hire him as a
stripper
A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event.
M ...
; Will enters the room prior to the "real" entertainment, wearing clown makeup and lingerie, tricking the bachelor into thinking that there was a mix-up and a
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
clown stripper has been sent in lieu of a female one. Will invents the persona of Vulgar the Clown (after his friend Syd tells him that the entire idea is "vulgar") and solicits himself in the want-ads. Before long, he is hired to appear at a bachelor party being held at a nearby motel.
When Will arrives for the party — wearing stockings, garters, clown makeup, and a trench-coat — he is attacked and brutally beaten by a middle-aged man, Ed, and his sons Gino and Frankie. The three men then proceed to
gang rape
Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...
Will, taking turns videotaping the attack. The trio hold Will hostage in the motel room for an indeterminate amount of time, during which they subject him to a series of violent and humiliating
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
s. They also break a bottle over his head and drug him. A tearful Will goes home and spends the remainder of the night and part of the next morning crying while he washes himself clean in the bathtub.
Will spends a considerable amount of time after the attack in a crippling
depression, which nearly costs him his home. Eventually, Will fulfills a promise to appear as a clown at one of his past clients' children's party. When he gets to the party, Will discovers a
hostage crisis
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
is occurring; the father of one of the children, in the middle of divorce proceedings, has kidnapped his own daughter and is threatening to kill her. In a near-suicidal reaction, Will sneaks past the police barricade, breaks into the house, and subdues the father. News reporters capture some of the event on film, and before long the story makes national headlines. Will becomes known as "the hero clown;" the attention and outpouring of support breaks him out of his depression, and he is eventually given his own syndicated children's television show.
The media coverage attracts the attention of Ed and his sons (who are still raping young men). They threaten Will with a copy of the tape of his being raped (edited to look like amateur porn) and begin to
extort
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...
him. When Will tries to pay the men off, they attack him in a bathroom stall. Will finally strikes an agreement with the men wherein he will come to a motel room and "perform" for them, allowing himself to be taken advantage of again, and they will give him all of the copies of the tape; secretly, Will plans to ambush and murder them with the help of Syd.
When the time comes, the gun jams and Will finds himself unable to kill his tormentors. Just as Ed and his sons move in to rape and murder Will, Ed's son Frankie accidentally shoots himself in the face. Then, a shootout ensues with a vagrant lowlife at the hotel, who robs Syd and then plots to do the same to the others. Both the man and Ed's other son (Gino) shoot each other to death. Ed panics, and Will chases him through the motel parking lot to a nearby deserted playground. As Will approaches him with gun-in-hand, Ed has a massive
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
and dies. Will takes off as he hears police sirens coming. His
conscience
Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sens ...
clear, Will retrieves the tape and goes on to live happily ever after, hosting his television show.
Cast
*
Brian O'Halloran
Brian Christopher O'Halloran (born December 20, 1969) is an American actor, producer, and podcaster best known for playing Dante Hicks in Kevin Smith's debut 1994 film '' Clerks'' and its 2006 and 2022 sequels '' Clerks II'' and '' Clerks III' ...
as Will Carlson/Flappy/Vulgar, A 20-something loser and clown.
*
Bryan Johnson as Syd Gilbert, Vulgar's friend.
* Jerry Lewkowitz as Ed Fanelli, a violent man.
*
Ethan Suplee
Ethan Suplee (; born May 25, 1976) is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''American History X'', ''Remember the Titans'', ''John Q'', '' The Wolf of Wall Street'', ''Without a Paddle'', and several ...
as Frankie Fanelli, Ed Fanelli's son and killer.
*
Matthew Maher as Gino Fanelli, a long time associate.
* Don Gentile as Sleppy Bum, a neighbor who sleeps.
* Thomas W. Leidner as Large Bum, Bum's friend
* Michael Tierney as Skinny Bum, Bum's son.
* David Gilbert as Delinquent #1, an acquainted leader.
* Erik Johnson as Delinquent #2, an acquainted person.
* Scott Schiaffo as Travis Lee
* Darin Johnson as Boy #1
* Brian Hartsgrove as Boy #2
* Aaron Hakeem as Cop #1
* Jamie Schultz as Cop #2
Extended Cuts
Extended opening
The director's cut
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
features an extended opening, with Will waking up in his bed late for his gig (it is circled and marked on the calendar). He screams at his malfunctioning alarm clock and quickly throws his clothes and make-up on—becoming "Flappy".
Extended ending
The director's cut DVD features an extended ending, wherein Will finds a note from Syd along with a portion of the newspaper in his dressing room on the Fanelli's death, Ed's heart failure from panic and overdose of
rack cocaine as well as attributing Ed's sons' (as well as the vagrant lowlife's) deaths to a random incidence of criminal violence and natural circumstance. A stunned Will breathlessly determines that the men's deaths were all
karmic
Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively ...
retribution.
Music
The film's original score was composed by
Ryan Shore
Ryan Shore (born 29 December 1974) is a Canadian composer, songwriter, Conducting, conductor, music producer, and music director for film composer, film, Television show, television, virtual reality, Albums, records, Video game composer, games, co ...
.
Release and reviews
The film received mostly negative reviews and holds a 23% "rotten" rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film received a 5/100 based on 10 reviews, meaning "overwhelming dislike". The one positive review to come from a major critic came from
Lou Lumenick
Louis J. Lumenick (born September 11, 1949) is an American film critic. He was the chief film critic and film editor for the ''New York Post'' where he reviewed films from 1999 until his retirement in 2016. He is currently researching the histor ...
of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
''.
Syndicated radio host
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terre ...
was sent a pre-release copy of the film. After watching less than half of it, he tossed it in the trash and then spoke poorly of it several times over the span of three weeks. Smith called in on April 26, 2002 and Stern's first question for him was "Why?".
Despite Stern's repeated warning not to see the film, others in his studio revealed that his continued bashing of the film only made them more intrigued, and some went to see it anyway just to satisfy their curiosity.
The film premiered at the
2000 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released on April 26, 2002 by
Lions Gate Films
Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinépix Film Properties) is an American film production and film distribution studio, headquartered in Santa Monica and founded in Canada, and is the flagship division of Lionsgate Entertainment. It is the lar ...
. Its first major screening was at The
Angelika Theater Center in New York City. ''Vulgar'' made $13,000 in its first weekend.
References
External links
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*{{mojo title, vulgar
2000 films
American crime thriller films
Films about clowns
American rape and revenge films
View Askew Productions films
American independent films
2000 directorial debut films
Films scored by Ryan Shore
2000s English-language films
2000s American films