Pecker(1998)

After Pecker’s (Edward Furlong) first photography exhibition at Rorey’s (Lili Taylor) gallery in New York City proves to be a big success, he becomes famous in the art world and in his hometown of Baltimore. However, he soon finds that his newfound fame has yielded some unexpected consequences: It interferes with the low-key lifestyle that he is accustomed to, plus the exhibition has triggered a chain reaction of events that leads to his family, friends, his girlfriend Shelley (Christina Ricci), and others in Baltimore that he has photographed all suffering for it in various ways.

When he next meets with Rorey in the basement of his family’s house, she takes a look at his newest batch of photographs and praises how they look, but he tells her that he considers each and every one of them to be garbage. She then hands him a check for $72,300 that he has made from the sales of his pictures, and we find out that she has arranged another photography exhibit for him in New York City, but this time at the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art. She also reveals her attraction to him (something that Shelley had already come to suspect about her) by asking him how he can be so kind and gentle and still have talent, and then she asks him if she can be his date to the Whitney exhibition before kissing him twice on his right cheek to coax him into accepting. He kisses her full on the lips in return, unaware that Shelley has come by the house and seen the kiss from outside the basement window. Her suspicions about Rorey now confirmed, plus upset with Pecker for evidently reciprocating her affections, she takes a picture of them on her camera with the flash on to end the kiss and get their attention. She then screams that she hates modern photography and runs away in tears. A remorseful Rorey tells Pecker that she didn’t mean for this to happen, but Pecker tells Rorey that you are not supposed to have sex with someone that you are trying to help. Rorey tells him that she didn’t plan this, and she adds that she just wanted a real boyfriend and not some “art person.” Pecker tells Rorey to cancel the Whitney exhibition and smashes his new full-featured Nikon camera on the floor, and when she objects to this, he yells to her that he wants his friends, family, and career back. He then grabs his old Canon rangefinder camera and takes off after Shelley, and Rorey chases after him and desperately asks him what they are going to do about the Whitney exhibition. He replies that that crowd is going to have to come to him this time because he is going to have his own photography exhibit right here in Baltimore.

While Pecker runs after Shelley, he saves his friend, Matt (Brendan Sexton III), from being beaten up by his old boss at the Sub Pit. After he gets Matt away from the guy, he tells him that he has gotten paid and now wants him to come and work for him and he will put him on salary. Matt accepts his offer, then runs off with him. Pecker chases Shelley into a polling station for a local election, and Shelley decides to hide from him in one of the voting booths. When Pecker and Matt come in moments later, Pecker tries to figure out what booth that Shelley is in, but he can’t since the precinct captain is watching his every move. Matt then gives him a chance to find Shelley without any interference by telling the precinct captain that he (genuinely) has to use the bathroom, and her distraction over telling him where to go to find the bathroom enables Pecker to find and sneak into Shelley’s booth. After standing in two bags that she has with her so the precinct captain can’t see his feet, Pecker begs Shelley to come back, because without her, his work is terrible. She retorts that Rorey is his work, but he tells her that it is HER that he loves. She then admits to him that she doesn’t understand any of “that art crap”, and he explains to her that she could if she just opened her eyes; art is everywhere and in everything you see every day, even in the various stains that she finds in the dirty laundry at her laundromat. She soon comes to understand what Pecker is talking about and tells him as much, after which they start having sex right there in the booth. However, the noise and the shaking of the walls do not go unnoticed by the precinct captain, who interrupts them and screams in horror at the sight of what they are doing.

Pecker makes the cover of various publications for refusing the Whitney and telling everyone to come to Baltimore, and he holds his next photography exhibition at his father’s bar, which has been recently renamed to “Pecker’s Place”. Among the many patrons are not just Shelley, his family, his friends, and TV crews and reporters, but also the various professional photographers, prominent art critics, gallery curators, and photography collectors who came to his first exhibition, who have come all the way to Baltimore to check out his latest photographs. However, the high-class patrons are a little embarrassed to find out that the latest round of pictures he is showing are somewhat unflattering ones that Pecker took of them at random times during the first exhibition (working in a bit of revenge against a few of them because of some disrespectful comments that they made in the media about his family). His mother sells her thrift store clothes there and gives fashion advice to the buyers like always, his older sister is tending the bar with their father and has brought over a few of the male dancers from the gay bar she used to work at to serve drinks, and his younger sister has gotten off junk food and is now a vegan (though she ravenously eats vegetables like how she did candy). Rorey shows up with a new “discovery”, Randy (Tyler Miller), who is the first blind photographer, and she tells Pecker that she will be giving him his first exhibit in November (although he shows that he is not good at what he does, due to his visual impairment).

After some partying takes place, Pecker’s father gets everyone’s attention before summoning his son to the bar, where he does a toast to him. A news reporter then approaches Pecker and asks him what his next for him, and he replies that he is thinking about directing a movie.