Raw, epiphanic, hard to watch, Harmony Korine's 1997 film Gummo could
not get a distribution deal. Most critics hated it. Gus Van Sant loved it. I
saw it seven times.
Korine's second feature, another tale of life in a small town, is inferior but
still shocking. The enfant terrible of indie cinema eschews a formal script and
uses hand-held DV cameras and, for the most part, non-actors. Scottish actor
Ewen Bremner gives a gorge-raising performance as the title schizophrenic who
works at a school for the blind; Chloë Sevigny shines as Pearl, Julien's
shy sister. A wooden Werner Herzog (cast in an apparent fit of cinematic
nepotism) plays their sadistic, Robitussin-guzzling father. Korine's trademark
obsessions are dutifully wheeled out: deformity (albinos, amputees),
concupiscence (a masturbating nun, incest), and basic oddity (a magician who
eats cigarettes). And apparently this is the first American Dogma 95 film,
photographed and edited by two Danes who worked on The Celebration and
Mifune. Despite such lofty ambition, the film is indulgently slop-op, as
if proclaiming, "See how the fragmented mise-en-scène mirrors the
protagonist's mental state." Innovative? I saw that on St. Elsewhere
years ago.
--Peg Aloi
Full Length Reviews
julien donkey-boy 
Other Films by Harmony Korine
Gummo 
Film Vault Suggested Links
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Dancer, Texas 
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