Honouring the Worst Movies of the Noughties - #4: Vulgar (2002)

The critics didn't think Bryan Johnson's provocative debut marked the arrival of a new Bunuel - metascore 5.

"Johnson [...] has a twisted mind and no evidence of talent." - Edward Guthman, San Francisco Chronicle

"Vulgar doesn't begin to describe it: Try one of the foulest, least amusing films ever made under the rubric of black comedy. At least, it seems to be meant as a black comedy; it's hard to tell, since this sordid tale of degradation and misery isn't the slightest bit funny." - Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide

"If Johnson has some piteous nightmare cum fantasy to work out, pray he does so in the privacy of his shrink's office next time around." - Marc Holcomb, Village Voice

"'Vulgar,' a movie that made me long for the competent lighting of 'Death to Smoochy,' seems to have been designed to shock the kind of people who once attended midnight shows. The only thing shocking about it, however, is the degree to which self-congratulatory gutter exhibitionism has become the degraded ash end of indie 'edge.'" - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

"Mr. Johnson went to high school with the director Kevin Smith ("Chasing Amy," 1997), who was godfather to this film and contributes a cameo as a gay television producer. [...] As a movie, "Vulgar," which opens today in Manhattan, San Francisco and Los Angeles, is quite a tribute to friendship. It certainly has no other apparent reason to exist." - Bryan Johnson, New York Times