I know this thread is old as fuck, but...
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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
yeah, he's ok means he's ok. sorta.
see, i found julian donkey boy unfuckingwatchable. i don't care if werner herzog is in it. a stupid fucking boring sleeper. there, i've said it. i tried watching it when i was going up the "dogma" films, 1,2,3... donkey ass is 5 right? or something. anyway i don't give a shit.
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Julien Donkey-Boy is his masterpiece. Even now I'm stunned by just how beautiful of a piece of work that film is, and I couldn't give a fuck less about the whole dogme 95 ordeal. It's just so gritty, humorous when it needs to be, but very bleak at the same time. QUIT YO MOODY BROODING @!#^#@$&^#&!
Now Trash Humpers? Yes, Trash Humpers was a sack of shit... a charmless Giuseppe Andrews knock-off.
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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
gummo was cool. but it was cool mostly because of an excellent sountrack. the ugly kid was cool too. but the story meh.
see the thing with korine is this gimmick that it's easy to decipher: take a bunch of freaky character and situations and film them in a quasi-documentary style. you know, for "realism". great. "a day in the life of a white trash family". ok...
but the man is a heartless motherfucker. i'm not speaking about his personal life, for wich i couldn't give 2 fucks, but about his "artistic vision", whatever you wanna call it. kids-- i detested the screenplay as well. same semi-documentary style.
my proGlem here is that, while i admit that he is not without merit, he gets excessively praised because, i dont know why, "my life is like it", you know? kinda like that shit movie "garden state" where every fucke "identifies" with that crap movie. well har kor is not so terrible, he is more interesting, sure, more indie, whatever, but as i was saying before he comes across as a cynical, heartless fuck.
now im not saying the universe is all peachy & things should come out right in the end, no. but documenting a fictional freak show isn't my idea of a good screenplay.
now, im saying this strictly about gummo. if we're going to compare vaguely similar stories, george washington >> gummo, in my book.
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Korine writes what he knows; and white trash, Herzog films, and tapdancing are what he knows best. So yeah, there definitely is a distinct formula to his better work. When he strays from this, like in say Mister Lonely (7/10) or Trash Humpers (3/10) he misses his mark. At least that's the way that I see it.
As far as his work being heartless, I can understand where you're coming from with that too. But I think if you dig deep enough into his work, there's a lot of heart to Gummo, Julien, and especially Mister Lonely. Kids doesn't count, given he was only 19 when he wrote it - the heart factor is irrelevant. But, it's not like he's Crispin Glover or something... have you seen What Is It? It's almost as mean-spirited as Cannibal Holocaust!
Oh, and your Gummo/Garden State comparison made me dry heave.
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Originally Posted by atsonicpark
Harmony is my favorite director on principle; the ideas in his film, the images, the music, everything about him would suggest he's the best director/writer I've ever seen. Unfortunately, the films themselves, the actual product of all his work, do absolutely nothing for me. Especially Julien Donkey-Boy... man... I dunno, it's just a rambling mess. And I love "challenging" "avant garde cinema", but his films honestly bore me. Which is hard to do. Yet at the same time I love them -- I just can't reccomend them. Does that make any sense?.
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Julien Donkey-Boy does everything for me, and then some. I still prefer it to Giuseppe's shit (which I do really like, don't get me wrong). I just consider Donkey-Boy to be a film that exceeds perfection.
But no, I came here because I wanted to talk about the short he released around the time of Trash Humpers, "Act Da Fool". I'm pretty sure Derek posted on here last year...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsB3S0CfKE
It's in the same cannon as Gummo, and Julien, but since it stars an all-black cast - people are calling it racist. Which is such a wild interpretation to me. It's funny how quickly people will jump to that conclusion. If anything, it's the exact opposite.
Act Da Fool is beautiful though, and the main actress did a terrific job with her poetic monologue. I like it so much, that I can't believe he made it so close to the time he filmed Trash Humpers. I think he would've been better off, had he turned this into a feature, and just kept TH as a short. Perhaps the Trash Humping joke wouldn't have run so thin in a shorter format.
Just some thoughts. Anyone know what he's been up to lately?