Gummo
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Movie Reviews of Gummo
Movie Review: A Shocking Vision of America
Summary: 5 Stars
Most tattoo artists I know say they are inundated with customers requesting to have American flags etched permanently into their bodies. I only wonder if any of these patriots have seen the movie, Gummo, a disturbing portrayal by filmmaker Harmony Korine of life in one small American town that they might not be so proud of. The film begins with a shot of Xenia Ohio, and a voiceover of a child's deadpan description. "A few years ago a tornado hit this place. It killed people left and right ... Houses were split open and you could see necklaces hanging from branches of trees ... I saw a girl fly through the sky and I looked up her skirt." These few sentences suggest the tragedy, mystery, and humor that surge through this film. However, most fans of your typical Hollywood flicks with explosive action and character developments may not be able to appreciate these features of Gummo. The movie has no plot, just a series of situations, no big screen stars, just small-time and even amateur actors. The characters they play simply exist on the screen without growing or changing. Most of them are lower-class white children of the type we rarely see outside the realm of trashy daytime talk shows. In fact, Korine actually tracked down Nick Sutton to play Tummler after he saw him on an episode of "The Sally Jesse Raphael Show" called "My Child Died from Sniffing Paint." When Sutton, who's a paint-sniffing survivor, was asked where he thought he'd be in a few years he replied simply, "I'll probably be dead." It was at that moment Korine claims to have fallen in love with the boy's image. In the movie, Tummler is one of two boys who cruise through Xenia on BMX, looking for stray cats to kill and then sell to the local butcher. The other boy, whose odd-looking face and underdeveloped body made him the promotional poster boy for Gummo, is Solomon. Other characters include the local pimp whose only prostitute is an attention-starved mentally-challenged woman, a couple of local teenage girls with bleached out blond hair who spend their time doting on their youngest sister while trying to make their nipples larger, and Bunny Boy, who doesn't speak at all during the movie but haunts many scenes as he passes by donning little else but a hood of long bunny ears.
One gets the feeling that none of these people has ever left Xenia, a place of grimy poverty, casual cruelty, and the type of boredom that gives way to drunken parties where men arm wrestle and in a make-shift ring pit themselves one by one against a kitchen chair. Although this film will likely disturb and disgust most viewers, it is a chance to see one man's unique cinema graphic vision-a dreamy yet poignant art project that is not meant to be defined but reacted to. Gummo is an electrifying succession of startling, strange, and tender images. Whether or not moviegoers can claim they were enthralled or they walked out halfway through-two perfectly legitimate responses-it is nevertheless a type of poetry on the screen.
Towards the end of Gummo there is a scene where Solomon's mother is simultaneously giving him a bath and feeding him a spaghetti dinner. For dessert, after his hair is washed, he receives a candy bar that he accidentally drops into the brown bath water and then, completely unphased, eats. There is barely any dialogue in this sequence, no background music, and if you look close enough you can see a piece of fried bacon stuck to the wall behind him with Scotch tape. This is Harmony Korine's idea of entertainment, bizarre images that stick with you long after the movie has ended.
At one point, Solomon's mother joins him in the basement while he is lifting weights-really handfuls of silverware bundled together-in front of a huge mirror. We watch his puny reflection, his deadpan determination. There is a hint of tenderness in his mother's eyes as she looks at him, a hint of pain as she puts on her dead husband's tap dancing shoes and begins to flop ridiculously around in them. Also when she picks up a handgun, jokingly holds it to her child's head and tells him to smile, there is a hint of something else, though it is difficult to determine exactly what it is. For sure, however, it is something entirely unique to Korine, a different brand of humor or tragedy or irony or beauty or perhaps none and all of the above. Scenes like this seem just to happen naturally in Gummo, and Korine, with the eye of an artist and the help of cinematographer, Jean-Yves Escoffier, shows them to us without judging or condescending to any of the characters involved.
The idea that places like Xenia actually exist in our country won't sit well with many people, yet Korine seems to want to play this lifelike texture up with grainy cuts from "home videos" of tornadoes and real people doing absurd standup routines for the camera. And while Gummo is confined to life in this one small impoverished American town, the soundtrack canvasses almost all aspects of American culture, ranging from Hoosier Hotshots to Madonna to Almedo Riddle singing the children's song, "My Little Rooster," to the death metal sounds of "Sleep," to Roy Orbison.
Ultimately, whether its lurid images of life are upsetting to viewers or not, Xenia is undoubtedly one pocket of American culture that should not be ignored. Neither should Harmony Korine's vision; and one must not forget that Gummo is, in essence, a visual experience. Without a storyline or any character development there's little else to go on anyway. However, the subtlety of each camera shot, the way each scene can be shockingly real, over-the-top, dream-like, touching, cruel, funny, and beautiful all at the same time makes for one bizarre film that's not to be missed.
Movie Review: Harmony Korine's White Trash Masterpiece...
Summary: 5 Stars
So many wonderful moments... The first time I watched 'Gummo' is permanently etched into my mind. It was one of those rare and incredible sensory experiences that stay with you. Like the first time you hear `Bitches Brew' or see `Requiem For A Dream'. `Gummo' is not your typical Hollywood film; its non-linear flow really turns some people off. Not every film needs a cogent story arc. `Gummo' is more a series of vignettes and unique characters, filmed beautifully by Jean-Yves Escoffier. He viewed white-trash suburbia (outer Memphis) through foreign eyes as if it was a third-world country or an alien landscape. It is presented to the viewer lovingly here. The retarded, mullets, and the disturbed denizens of Xenia, Ohio are beautifully combined in a surreal stew of glaring reality. At times, `Gummo' has the feel of a documentary (possibly it is). There are few `proper' actors in this film and that definitely adds to the charm. Korine claims to have assembled most of his cast in approximately 45 minutes from Memphis Burger Kings and Laundromats. Nick Sutton (Tummler) was discovered by Harmony on a talk show that pertained to `paint-sniffing survivors'- he commented that anyone who can survive copious amounts of inhalants must have a good constitution and that those were the kinds of people he wanted to work with.
Much has been made of the shocking nature of this film. But really how shocking are animal abuse, inhalant intoxication, and the exploitation of the retarded? It was all simulated (probably not the inhalant usage though) for this film. These things happen every day. Korine has a knack for letting the camera naturally flow places it has likely never been. There is an indescribable aura permeating virtually every frame of this wondrous creation. It is one of my favorite movies.
What is `Gummo' about? Korine basically follows Tummler & Solomon (Nick Sutton & Jacob Reynolds); two lost teenage boys as they go about the business of amusing themselves, having milkshakes, and staying sane in Xenia, Ohio. This is facilitated by indulging in inhalants, purchased with money obtained from selling dead cats to an unscrupulous store owner who then sells the felines to a Chinese restaurant. The camera also follows Helen, Darby, and Dot. Dot is played beautifully by Korine's girlfriend at the time, Chloe Sevigny who also handled the wardrobe for this movie. By the way, you will undoubtedly see some of the best dressed people ever in this film (and let us not forget the spectacular display of mullets).
A number of scenes from this one-of-a-kind film will stay with you long after watching it. The soundtrack is another highlight, for it is one of the best I have ever heard. The movie really wouldn't be the same without the exquisite soundtrack which includes Sleep's `Dragonaut', Buddy Holly, Ray Orbison, Brujera, Eyehategod, and other delights.
I can't recommend this movie to all. If you prefer big budget Hollywood fare and linear narrative, then please steer clear of this amazing film. However, if you are adventurous, artistic, and fascinated by the human animal in its natural habitat, then by all means see this incredible film.
Movie Review: How American Beauty's little whirlwind became a Tornado
Summary: 5 Stars
I somewhat braced myself to see a barrage of the "Wh* Tr*" label being thrown around when reading the reviews of this movie. (A perfect negation to all who claim Americans are comparatively less class-conscious.) If we can get pass additional loaded labels like "Enfant Terrible" and "pretentious," maybe we can all start to see with a fresh eye. It amazes me that so many people trumpet the greatness of American Beauty, but suddenly go sour when the movie Ricky Fitts would have logically gone off to shoot after he became tired of filming the flying bag in the whirlwind, is right here: Symbolically, that small whirlwind in American Beauty that blew the bag around for a five-minute video has turned into the gigantic tornado that hit Xenia Ohio.
If we can suspend our prejudices at the word "Wh* Tr*" for 90 minutes, then every image becomes a thing of beauty. Is violence bad? Sure. The allusions made from the image of a gang of drunk shirtless guys beating up a chair is scary, I'll admit it. But it doesn't make the image itself ugly. In fact, it's quite gorgeous. Whenever I find that I might get carried away with a little bit of snobbery, all I have to say to myself is this: If Francisco Goya was at that kitchen, if Durer was there, or even Kathe Kollwitz...would any of these artist chose NOT to document the moment?
No.
So we have to be very careful when we react to something as a result of our upbringing and prejudices versus the lifelong search for all that is truly beautiful.
Traditional folk singer Almeda Riddle opens the movie with a wonderfully sung Rooster song. Jacob Sewell (with androgynous supermodel looks) dons bunny ears and embodies the violence dished out on stray cats. (The American Humane Society is noted at the end of the film as being on the premises to monitor and prevent any animal cruelty. Prostethetics were used as well, just in case you were concerned). I especially enjoyed the alternate settings of cruelty to cats (from the boys) and adoration (from girls), and the subsequent crossroad leading to that abstract object of desire disappearing...and ending up in the hands of the bunny boy.
Everything in between is there for the taking. You just have to check your sense of superiority at the door and take every image as it comes.
For years, I've always said that a traveller to any country or town always brings a fresh eye to the way natives see the things they have taken for granted. Korine mentions this about the cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier as well, saying that the Frenchman sees Nashville with the eyes of wonder (which we should all possess on a daily basis).
Of course, it's possible to argue that if you look without discrimination, then taste and preferences are all but abolished. You might as well just let the camera roll. That's a mistake. Taste and preferences (which, in another word is prejudice) are instilled in us. When you come out of an instructive movie like Gummo, you begin to reassess what you have taken for granted (or flat out ignored) all along. Hopefully you'll see your surroundings with a fresh new eye.
Movie Review: Beat Up a Chair, Today!
Summary: 5 Stars
Gummo is classic American art-house cinema that doesn't hold back on its taboo of not being politically correct. This film is a wrong film, wrong in that it is all wrong, wrong, wrong and dreadfully worrying that most of what you see is pretty much somewhat real in a very wrong sort of way. The theme of "reality redneck theatre" does not seem very appealing, but this movie just transcends its exploitation material by simply staying within the realm of showing you what some awfully cheerless places in America are like. The people in this film are living in borderline poverty. They are the outcasts of society who has deemed them unfit for presentation to anybody or anything. Thus all the characters in this film share a common bond of just being able to do whatever the hell they want, among themselves, without the intrusion of the outside self-proclaimed "normal" world.
For some reason you can not blame these people for what they are or the things that they do. Society has forced them to live separately. If any of these people where to appear before a judge for their lewd acts or sometimes downright criminal behaviour, the judge would likely give them a fraction of what a "normal" person would get just based on their socially isolated upbringing. Gummo is all about that remote world where these people live a different life because they are the direct result of capitalism - that small percentage that must exist in order for the rich to thrive. This is the epitome of the lower class. So why should a director not bring it to the screen? Why should we not see the stink that capitalism has created? Why should cinema only be devoted to the more "nice" things that we want to see?
This is not exploitation material because it never, never, never, looks down on these people. You are right in there with them. The director could have just arrived on the scene and given us a lame story where the people go around pretending to be something that they are not. Here the actors, mingled with some real life folk, just play themselves out normally, as they would any other day in redneck town. THIS IS REMARKABLE CINEMA!
As it stands Gummo is not a film that you will enjoy and is certainly sick at times, but it is great material that would likely be confined to the waste bin in Hollywood if these indie filmmakers did not go out and just do it for themselves. Gummo is for a tiny market, but is worth watching because of its non-mainstream unconventionality. Don't miss out on seeing this other side of life. It is a world that you have never seen before - although albeit maybe not something you WANT to see, but something you SHOULD see.
Diversity is needed. Say thanks to Harmony Korine for giving you something different.
Movie Review: ethereal, relentlessly disturbing, and close to home
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an artist and musician with plenty of twisted and controversial ideas in my head. I live in an impovershied town much like Xenia, Georgia in this film. When you put the two together, this is essentially the closest thing in films you can get, so no wonder I love this film so much...but I also dig William S. Burroughs and J.G. Ballard novels, films by David Cronenburg, and the wild music of Mr. Bungle as well so you can add up the rest...Anyway, this ranks along with FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, NAKED LUNCH, and WILD AT HEART as my favorite films of all time. It's a no holds barred, graphic, illrational, and relentlessly confusing detached even at times brutal portrayal of kids in an impoversihed hillbilly town so bored they do a variety of strange things: kill cats and sell them to a shop as food in exchange for their glue-sniffing habit and some spare cash, having sexual relationships with a mentally-retarted prostitute, tearing scotch tape off their breasts to make them grow bigger, pulling weights with spoons while listening to Madonna, and engaging in homosexual and bisexual relationships. Plus, there's a boy with bunny ears who plays accordion in abandoned bathrooms, girls not all there singing Bible songs, and gents going naturally insane to a mixture of dark death metal and ambient noise compositions...
If this doesn't intrigue you yet, than you ain't desynsetized yet. Did I spell that right, you know what it doesn't friggin' matter...the overall effect of this movie has an aestethic like it's a post-apocalyptic wasteland of ruined and damaged beauty forms. Except that places like this actually exist, further proof that society is already falling apart, and the apocalypse might as well be here. And again there is no central story, just a bunch of random people doing crazy things, occasionally swapping ridiculous stories...and oh yeah, there is some racism too, but small towns have that anyway...
The great thing is that the cameraman (which I'm pretty sure is the same guy from KIDS) gives everything a real yet unreal quality, matching the destroyed scenery perfectly.
Simply put this film rocks, it's like an Errol Morris film if it was on acid and done by David Cronenburg...that alone should leave an interesting visual in yr. mind.