It's the story of one man's tragic loss of the love of his life. He is Bud Clay. And he races motorcycles. He rides in the 250cc Formula II class of road racing. Round and round he goes, repeating laps over and over until the race is over. The story begins with Bud racing in New Hampshire. Bud's next race is in California in five Days. And so his journey begins across America. And everyday Bud is haunted by the same memories of the last time he saw his true love. Bud will do anything to make those memories disappear. And every day he tries to find a new love. Making outrageous requests of women to come with him on his trip and then leaving them behind after they've agreed. He can't replace Daisy, the only girl he's ever loved and the only girl he will ever love. But every day he tries. [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

After all the controversy, scandal and speculation, “The Brown Bunny” is finally here.

Universally scorned as one of the worst films of this or any year at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, the worldwide gossip behind this existential road trip built into such a fervor that its American release became all but inevitable.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was particularly harsh in his criticism of the work, saying it was the worst film in the festival’s history. In a much-publicized response, director Vincent Gallo proceeded to mock Ebert’s weight and put a hex on his colon, to which Ebert retorted that “ even my colonoscopy was more entertaining than his film."

Naturally, the question on everyone’s mind is whether the movie is really that bad. Much like the despised “Gigli,” the answer is no.

“The Brown Bunny” is not on the short list of the worst films of all time, but that being said, it is still pretty dreadful. What remains in this reedited version is a work made more for appreciation than for entertainment value. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that no one could possibly be “entertained” by what Gallo has put on the screen here.

The best that can be said is that “Bunny” is occasionally a stimulating piece to appreciate and analyze.

The bulk of the story (if you can call it that) is a road trip, focusing on one man (Gallo) who is going across America in only a few days, depicted with a minimalist flair that is at times excruciatingly boring.

We watch from the passenger seat as he drives, changes lanes, and makes his way through intersections. We sit there in silence as he fills his car with gas. And we peer out through his bug-splattered front window at the distant horizon.

On he drives, and on, and on, only stopping to make out with women, check out a pet shop, and speed away on his motorcycle on the salt flats of the west.

Without much dialogue, and without a driving force for the narrative, the bulk of “Brown Bunny” is only skin-deep. Gallo’s character is a thinly-shaded outline of a man, besides a few flashbacks used to depict his internal thoughts about a woman (Chloe Sevigny ), and one conversation which alludes to a woman he loved and a child he lost.

Reaching California, he reunites with this woman and they engage in a graphic sex scene that teeters between emotions of sincerity, desperation, fear and disgust. While I fully understand the themes coursing through these shocking moments, I continue to believe it is exploitative and pornographic because it could have been shown so many other ways. And without characters to care about, we are not engaged with this event, but are left gawking at a most surprising turn of events.

For 95% of the viewing public, “Brown Bunny” a film to avoid like the plague. For most, it will be boring, wandering, lewd and unresolved.

I must be honest, however, that I found small parts of its clouded message intriguing and even inspiring. If his trip is viewed as the journey of our lives, metaphors can be made for most of what happens. He kisses the first sweet girl out of desperation, and then abandons her. He submits to temptation with another. He is always in a rush, paying little mind to those he squashes on his way. And he is always running from a past that he cannot escape.

And while there is something visceral about that final sex scene, it is even more frustratingly ambiguous than the remainder of the story.

Initially about issues of trust and insecurity, a final twist tosses everything up in the air, and throws that scene, as well as the remainder of the story, into question – a final dismissal from a filmmaker more concerned with his own ego than an audience that has been brave enough to accompany him this far.

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