James Siegel All right let's get this out of the way first. This is often known as "That Kevin Smith Clown Rape Movie" Let's tackle these misconceptions. First of all, Kevin Smith did not write or direct this movie, Byran Johnson did. Smith produced it, and huzzah to him for allowing this great movie to come about. Smith also had a cameo. Many, many View Askew actors had parts in this. Jason Mewes, Ethan Surplee, Walt Flanagan and others had cameos and small roles. Bryan "Steve-Dave" Johnson also had a fairly large part. Now, about the clown rape. YES a clown is raped. NO, it is not funny. Nor is it supposed to be. This movie is a very serious movie that is full of emotions and you really, really feel for these characters. I mean, you might just cry after all the crud Will "Flappy/Vulgar" Carlson is put through. This movie also has a good amount of comedy in it. Nothing to extreme. Not all of it is funny, but accents the rather serious tone rather well. You must understand though, this is not a comedy. You WILL NOT LAUGH AT A CLOWN BEING RAPED. Unless you enjoy physically raping clowns yourself you will either be offended, horrified or engrossed, or all three. This movie is really great, though. The acting is what sets it apart from all other low budget films. O'Halloran's acting is beyond anything he's put forth so far. No one else would be able to portray the range of emotions he goes through whilst also looking like a common man throughout. You will coo at his heartwarming love of children. You will be thoroughly touched by his depressing life. You will cheer for him when the going is good, and stick with him when the going is bad. And the going gets really bad. The rest of the acting is above par as well, especially the psychotic trio. You will be generally disgusted at these sick, vulgar beings. And that's what makes this movie standout. Amazing acting. Cinematography is also excellent here, with a few shots that make my keen eyes widen. Johnson and Scott Mosier did a good editing job and the soundtrack is quite good, and even worth a purchase for it's interesting mix of under-the-radar music of varying genres, while not overpowering the film itself. Flaws? Yeah, a few. One, it's really melodramatic. Sometimes the drama is just too much. Thankfully it's cut out with some humor, though sometimes in the midst of things it's not that funny. Also, many loose ends that you would like tied up are left open. This works well in the end, but sometimes during the movie you'll go "huh". Overall, this isn't for the "ha-ha Kevin Smith makes nice dick jokes" crowd, so much as die-hard fans. But anyone who has a strong stomach and a sensible mind can relate to this poor clown's existence in perhaps the most underrated film of all time. Go buy it!

matthewgtravis-1 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.

tonymurphylee 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

drspam ...but awfully close to it. you know what other "dark" and "controversial" movies have that this one didn't? a point....oh! and good acting. though i guess i wouldn't have minded the teleprompter-ish quality to the dialogue if what was on the teleprompters weren't so retarded.also it might have helped if the sound were actually synchronized to the image, but maybe that's just me being picky.wow, this movie was bad.-f