The
film Vulgar not only lives to its name, but
also gives new meaning to the word. Will Carlson (played by
Brian Christopher O'Halloran) scrapes out a living as Flappy,
a party clown. Aside from his best friend Syd (played by Bryan
Johnson), he is bullied by everyone, including creditors,
but kids and parents love his performances. Even his mother
Wilma (played by Jay Petrick) tonguelashes him when he visits
her in a dark room at a nursing home. One day he scours through
the classified ads, several of which offer payment for twisted
fantasies, and he gets a brilliant idea. He will perform as
a clown in drag at bachelor's parties to surprise a groom
under the stagename Vulgar. However, his first customer is
a perverted man and his two gay sons (played by Jerry Lewkowitz,
Ethan Suplee, and Matt Maher), who proceed to rape him. Syd,
on hearing about the experience, urges him to go to the police,
but Will is too embarrassed to do so, a typical reaction of
a rape victim. One day Flappy is hired to perform at a birthday
party, but by the time he arrives the husband has taken his
own daughter hostage, demanding full custody from his estranged
wife. Although police surround the house, and the husband
has a gun, Flappy sneaks into the house, overpowers the husband,
and becomes a national hero. A TV program director (played
by Kevin Smith) then persuades a TV executive to sign up Flappy,
a surefire meal ticket now that Mr. Rogers is no more. Accordingly,
Flappy's Funhouse is a hit, and even Will's mother is charmed
by his successful show. However, the rapist also sees the
show, blackmails Will for money, and then demands a repeat
performance of the rape scene. After Will then tells Syd falsely
that the three rapists instead want Vulgar to kill them, they
get guns and take them to a motel where the three plan to
rape Vulgar again. However, Syd gets mugged. Vulgar enters
alone and nervously drops his gun. But one of the sons picks
up the gun, and soon shots are fired, and the three rapists
are soon dead. Although Vulgar has not pulled the trigger,
he runs off, and the film ends. The point of the film, according
to Kevin Smith in a Q&A at a first night screening in
Los Angeles, is to make an exploitation film, a genre that
once was popular. Indeed, the movie does show that civility
is hard to find among lower middle class whites in American
society nowadays, replaced by the pursuit of either filthy
money or sick fantasies. The dialog is coarse, the sets seedy,
and the normality, if lack of sophistication, of Will and
Syd seems out of place amid the vulgarity depicted in the
film, but how else could the message get across? Americans,
or at least those identifiable as white trash, do not want
to see how vulgar they have become, so the low-budget film
was not sold out on opening night. Even the distributor, Lions
Gate Films, declined the honor of planting its logo in the
opening credits. MH
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