INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL TURNS TWISTED IN TORONTO

TORONTO, Canada – Get ready for a slew of gross films. Twisted, disturbing movies are causing a stir at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the aptly titled new “Vulgar” leads the pack.

New Jersey bad-boy filmmaker Kevin Smith – whose “Dogma” inspired a boycott by a Catholic group – shocked the audience Tuesday night with the world premiere of this latest film from View Askew, his production company.

And Toronto audiences don’t shock easily.

Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” graphically depicts the descent of a drug-taking mother and son (Ellen Burstyn and Jared Leto) in Brighton Beach.

Tom Twyer’s German “Princess and the Warrior” shows a tracheotomy in stomach-churning detail. Jon Shear’s deeply disturbing “Urbania” (opening tomorrow in Manhattan) features a brutal gay-bashing incident. And the French-Canadian black comedy “Maelstrom” starts with a chilling, clinical depiction of an abortion.

Even Robert Altman’s cheery and otherwise audience-friendly “Dr. T and the Women” opens with Richard Gere performing a gynecological examination – and closes with a close-up of a live birth.

But the compelling “Vulgar,” written and directed by Smith’s longtime friend Bryan Johnson, goes way beyond pushing the envelope.

This very dark revenge comedy features a brutally intense male rape scene that, one audience member suggested afterwards, makes those in “Pulp Fiction” and “Deliverance” seem mild by comparison.

The victim is a children’s party clown, fearlessly played by “Clerks” star Brian O’Halloran, who offers a raunchier version of his services for bachelor parties so he can afford his mother’s nursing home.

Unfortunately, his first customers are a perverted middle-aged man and his two adult sons who are all too taken by the bustier and fishnets the clown dons for the role – and they ravage him at knife-point in an unforgettable sequence.

Though Smith – who did battle with the Hollywood ratings board over his potty-mouthed debut, “Clerks” – doesn’t direct and the low-budget movie has a far more twisted sensibility, the connections with his other movies are unmistakable.

“Vulgar” shares the same central Jersey setting and features several familiar actors, including Smith himself – who drops his patented Silent Bob character to play a slick producer who hires the clown for a TV series, unaware of his awful secret.

“Vulgar” doesn’t yet have a theatrical distributor, and Smith conceded the film’s violence may make it a tough sell for mini-majors like Miramax, Fine Line and USA Films.

But he said at the opening-night party at the trendy Bauhaus nightclub that he was pleased only about 50 people walked out of the first screening.

“I thought it played very well,” he said.

Director Johnson said the film was inspired by the drawing of a transvestite clown – the logo on the movies produced by View Askew, going back to “Clerks.”

“The first draft was much rougher,” said O’Halloran. “I read it and I just had to put it out of my mind for a few days.”

As the Schnabel gathering began to wind down a bit, many made the short walk around the corner to what promised to be a unique event — the party for Bryan Johnson’s “Vulgar.” The hard to get invite was in the form of a button that read “Vulgar Party 2000” — below the picture of a festive-looking clown with a five o’clock shadow, read “I’m invited, let me the fuck in!”

Film producer Kevin Smith, here with View Askew partner and “Vulgar” co-producer Scott Mosier, greeted guests as they entered — his wife Jen organized the effort and good friend Malcolm was on door duty checking the buttons of arrivals. Inside, hostesses dressed as sad clowns passed out candy and eery clown faces hung from the walls.

“Vulgar,” the story of a struggling professional clown who reinvents himself as “Vulgar,” a transvestite clown, grew out conversations that filmmaker Johnson had with Smith and their friend Walter at the famed Quick Stop in New Jersey, Johnson told indieWIRE. Johnson, a native of Highlands, NJ, became friends with Smith back in High School.

The shock of “Vulgar” apparently intensifies in a particular scene when Vulgar has his first gig as the transvestite clown, surprising a group of bachelor party attendees expecting a female stripper. “Indeed, it may be one of the most shocking, extended and depraved film sequences in recent memory,” wrote Festival programmer Steve Gravestock in the catalog.

The shock value was met with walk-outs at the film’s screening Monday night and at yesterday’s Industry/Press screening. At the party yesteday, a rep from a high-profile Festival told of his decision to leave the movie early on, along with a top programmer from the same event. Reacting to the early exits at last night’s party, Johnson wore the walk-outs as a badge of honor, seemingly pleased at making an impact and to have stirred cocktail conversation.

The “Vulgar” party continued until well past 2 a.m. when some attendees headed over to the Festival’s late-night haunt, Bistro 990. The crowd at Bistro was large as ever with a crowd outside waiting to get past the sometimes selective doormen. Inside, the place remained crowded even after the 4 a.m. closing bell. As the Festival hit a stride at its midpoint it was a culmination for some, as many executives and Hollywood types prepare to head home. indieWIRE, of course, will remain on the scene until the very end.
[Eugene Hernandez]

At a college wide preview of Cameron Crowe’s newest film “Almost Famous” starring Jason Lee, there was a questionarre with the director himself via satelliate. The question asked was what was it like to work with Jason Lee, a actor who is best known for his comedic roles. After much applause by the live audience, in response, Crowe replied something like this: “I had always wanted to work with Jason Lee since Mallrats. He came in auditioning for the role and almost instanty had the role. During the film and the “rock school” where the actors went through hundreds of records including Stillwater, the band portryaed, Jason truly fell into the role of the lead singer of the band, portraying all the neccessary characteristics. Keep in mind this is just a recap, since any form of communication devices were not allowed inside.

P.S. The movie was amazing, hopefully garnering Lee the fame he so richly deserves.