Being an ardent fan of Kevin Smith films, I was looking forward to seeing this effort by one of his close colleagues Steve Johnson. Obviously people are going to be deterred by the obvious graphic material, as I was at first. But there is more to this film than the much maligned rape scene.
This is a film about a down and out clown called 'Flappy', played by the impressive Brian O'Halloran from Clerks fame. He entertains children at birthday parties for a living. He has a crazy mother in a old persons' home. He also has lunatics for neighbours, who throw glass bottles at him. He then gets an epiphany to become a transvestite clown for bachelor parties. This is where it goes horribly wrong. On his first party he is jumped by three inbreds who subject him to torture and rape.
He is obviously distressed by the whole situation and decides to give up his employment as a clown altogether. But on his way to one last party, he confronts a man who has kidnapped his daughter. Flappy is successful in his attempts of saving the girl. He's becomes a national hero overnight and has been assigned to present his own childrens' programme. It is here that the inbreds recognise the Flappy on television. They decide to bribe him, if Flappy does not comply then they have a cassette, which shows the whole rape incident.
Finally Flappy enlists the help of his friend to come up with a solution. He confronts them one final time and the situation is resolved with drastic consequences.
In my opinion this is a brave subject to be tackling on your first film but I feel Steve Johnson has passed with flying colours. At first I debated whether or not to watch the film but in the end I am glad I did. All I can say further is that you have to keep an open mind about the whole subject and try and enjoy the film for what it is. IMPRESSIVE!
This is a film about a down and out clown called 'Flappy', played by the impressive Brian O'Halloran from Clerks fame. He entertains children at birthday parties for a living. He has a crazy mother in a old persons' home. He also has lunatics for neighbours, who throw glass bottles at him. He then gets an epiphany to become a transvestite clown for bachelor parties. This is where it goes horribly wrong. On his first party he is jumped by three inbreds who subject him to torture and rape.
He is obviously distressed by the whole situation and decides to give up his employment as a clown altogether. But on his way to one last party, he confronts a man who has kidnapped his daughter. Flappy is successful in his attempts of saving the girl. He's becomes a national hero overnight and has been assigned to present his own childrens' programme. It is here that the inbreds recognise the Flappy on television. They decide to bribe him, if Flappy does not comply then they have a cassette, which shows the whole rape incident.
Finally Flappy enlists the help of his friend to come up with a solution. He confronts them one final time and the situation is resolved with drastic consequences.
In my opinion this is a brave subject to be tackling on your first film but I feel Steve Johnson has passed with flying colours. At first I debated whether or not to watch the film but in the end I am glad I did. All I can say further is that you have to keep an open mind about the whole subject and try and enjoy the film for what it is. IMPRESSIVE!