Gummo

Title: Gummo
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: "Drama"
Starring: Jacob Reynolds, Nuck Sutton, Chloë Sevigny
Director: Harmony Korine

I was hesitant about which genre to put this film, thus I used the quotation. "Korine", who also wrote the script, takes through scenes through the lives of the fictional residents of the nihilistic town of "Xenia, Ohio". Although the events seem to have little in common, little by little, we begin to have some guideline connections. By exploring many themes, from mental illness and retardation, to animal abuse, to the whole Middle American society, removing any "pop" image we might expect, the image that appears in many films. For instance, when we see retarded, we see retarded. There won't be any romantic vision about it. The film is effective in its originality. While seeing a rotten, dead cat in films isn't that big of a deal, here we will feel disturbed a bit. Such realism was done in this film, only 75% of the film is scripted. The moving between scenes I found to be strong, it's like at sometimes people holding the camera and forgetting it’s on, discussing all sorts of matters, like killing cats.

"Korine" would basically record and add anything that he views complementing to the film's aesthetics. He was even one time chased by fathers wielding shotguns, in areas he filmed in, thinking he was doing child pornography. We can feel the dedication he spent in bringing an experience that personifies hopelessness, angst, and nihilism. It's hard to believe it was him in that scene with the midget. I appreciated the attention to details that have been made. The insect bites on a kid's feet, the garbage and seemingly disgusting kitchen, and the bacon in the bathroom. No intention to brighten the situation up, just a showing how society can get. I have seen enough trash in my life to know there's nothing impossible, but I can't imagine myself growing like that. Even the houses that the film used weren't modified, or adjusted, all the dirt, even the insect's coming from behind the portrait are the real and current situation. The film felt heavy on me, not because it's stupid or silly, but because I know there are many people who live in such situation.

My bathroom isn't far from me, I can go fix me some spaghetti and go eat it in the bathtub, there's nothing strange or revolting about that, but what "Korine" showed us is not strange as much as it is revolting. The water color alone made me feel a bit agitated. There are no real stars here. One of the people fighting in the kitchen scene got out of prison on that day, nothing beautiful about it. What is it about beating and destroying a chair that bothered me? It is knowing that what I saw was the culmination of their day. Even the image and the look of the film feel hopeless. When we here in the film's beginning monologue that the town was hit by a devastating tornado, we could think it was the worst thing that hit the town, however when we find out how it is to live there, we could change our mind. I have some minor abjections though, we see some introduced that leave us wanting more to know and curious. We can understand "Korine's" intentions; however we feel he should have given them a more time. With a running time of an hour and a half, I don't think it's that hard do to so.

But why would I give such negativity a high mark? It's the intention, creativity, and avant-garde film-making of "Harmony Korine". This was the birth of a new "American" film director that actually succeeds where many others have failed. "Korine" would become the first non-European to be accepted in the "Dogme 95" movement through the film "Julien Donkey-Boy", though in "Gummo" we see how it all started. Think of the atmosphere as Limbo, although we meet some good characters, that is the existence they know and live in. This is an independent film for the open minded, no high action or state of the art technology were used. Don't expect dramatized monologues or over the top soliloquies. Recommended to me b my flat mate, I tried it for the sake of trying something different, I wasn't disappointed. The film, could feel heavy to watch, and it did let me after finishing it put on something beautiful such as Mozart. Watching it would be the best way to understand what I say, yet watching it with a closed mentality when it comes to film is pretty pointless.

Trailer