![]() His films approach the disabled and the dispossessed, the racialized and the societally-rejected, in a way that may offend the self-professed allies of these groups, but where Hollywood advocacy films tend to patronize these people by way of saccharine, feel-good stories, Korine simply let’s them exist on screen. And yet his films possess staying power not for their unique vision, not for their shock value, but rather for their immense humanism. But soon after his 1997 debut directorial effort Gummo, no less a figure than Werner Herzog called him, “the last foot soldier in the army,” and since then Korine has produced a body of work that seems to exist entirely outside the confines of contemporary cinematic language. Detractors account for his success by referring to an experimental visual style and subjects that tend to be, as Variety called the Humpers, “riveting beyond rationality.”Īt the beginning of his career he reinforced the enfant terrible stereotype with goofy appearances on Letterman and erratic public behaviour that came as a result of drug addiction. Korine, who has no qualms about surrendering from the confines of propriety, has made a character resembling his ethos- who outright states that the expressions of art pour out when he lets himself loose, is his authentic self, and takes an attitude of appreciation for the endless particles of beauty around him making energy tangible that most of us never imagined could be.Too often Harmony Korine is dismissed as a mere provocateur, the dubious character behind films like Gummo and Trash Humpers that are aesthetically, well, trashy. This is truly a film that comprehends the corporeal world as far more cosmically boundless than most films do, and is probably a lot closer to the truth too, which is so ironic to write after the fantastical stimuli we're flooded with here. Only in the magic of the movies is everyone rooting for the main character like this, the world revolving around him, which to Korine's credit has some truth in that we are the center of our own worlds and subject to a spectrum of infinite degrees in our own personal contextualizations of morality, rather than the two or three choices we believe exist in societally-informed neat boxes. The plot intrusions that force development mirror as these waves of ocean current that impede our derelictions and aggressively work to promote change- though Korine recognizes that even within these crossroads (which he gives us in the most recycled cinematic constructs as a kind of cheeky wink at the banality of these "problems" for a "great and brilliant" unique man like Moondog) there are limitless methods by which we can respond including many of compromised rejection, and that's what illustrates for one the singularity of their identity. The many stages of drug experiences are basically the editing and narrative structure, as Korine transmits by choosing when to move in with firm involvement into the trip and when to remove us with some sobriety transmitted in technique. Zac Efron's character reminds me of specific people I've known in my own life who by being close to them have led to invaluable experiences and greater appreciation for wonderful sides of humanity under the guise of being only red flags- a dehumanizing view that's unfair no matter how problematic they are. The rehab section could be so offensive, but is shot in a manner that reflects the self-diagnosis of the characters who aren't ready for it, and the film has the boldness to accept this (and even celebrate it!)- a choice I found admirable to counter my own context. The film addresses complacency, the merits and harms of a selfish unapologetic lifestyle, and the struggles with moving in a world where the currents move with and against us, and vice versa, all without didacticism or taking anything beyond a neutral, interested and passionately humanistic position, taken to extremist perversity. ![]() And yet, it's not an intimacy the audience is completely invited in on, to contrast with that which we were smothered with in Spring Breakers- Sure, we are included but mostly in pieces of montage that end in jarring abrupt shifts or deflating transitions that demonstrate how moments are fleeting, highs aren't permanent, and that iconoclasm's simplicity is illusory. ![]() ![]() Korine manages to convey an intimacy between man and his world as he moves through it, with it, in alternate dimensions we don't often observe because we don't possess the flexible schemas to perceive or believe we can mentally access against social norms. As if I needed another reminder of the power of revisits, I finally acclimated to this film's wavelength on a second go for similar reasons as knives and mfunk summarize so succinctly. ![]()
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