Harmony Korine

I watched Trash Humpers today, and I thought it was fantastic, so I am thinking of spening my holiday break this year getting familiar with his other films. I am planning on watching Julien Donkey-Boy tomorrow.

Any thoughts on his work? Favorite films that I should prioritize in my list?

I've only seen Spring Breakers and I didn't really like it. Haven't felt the urge to check his other films, but maybe some day.

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I'm assuming you've already seen Gummo and Kids?

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Cinema needs more Harmony Korine's. Unafraid to make whatever he wishes. Gummo and kids are great, spring breakers less so but still good.

His next film is filmed entirely in infra red and looks insane



This is why box office numbers and oscars should be seen as irrelevant

Gummo is just about one of the greatest movies ever made. Julien Donkeyboy is excellent. Springbreakers is pretty great, but probably overstays its welcome a bit. Beach Bum is passable and kind of frustratingly meh for a Korrine movie. I probably wasn't in the mood for Trash Humpers when I saw it, but I should revisit. Mostly hated Mr Lonely, which squanders a great premise.


Kids, which he didn't direct, but his fingerprints are all over it, is essential. Took me a long time to be able to look past the scuzz of what is on screen to recognize how beautiful and harrowing its honesty is.

No, only Trash Humpers so far, but I have been aware of Gummo for years because of the soundtrack.

I've only seen Gummo, which is incredible, and Spring Breakers, which I like quite a bit. I should check out some of his other films.

Spring Breakers is it for me and it's trash

Spring Breakers is worth watching. I wrote a few words about it back in 2014. I likened it to extending a movie dream sequence into an entire film.

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In American culture, spring break is seen as a period of extensive partying, beach loitering, and loud music. Students and teenagers anticipate it to take a break from their classes, and have a week of stress-free fun, while others see it as an opportunity of bonding, of sharing with friends and having new experiences. That is the case of one the lead characters in Harmony Korine's crime film.

Spring Breakers follows a group of four friends (Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, and Rachel Korine) as they decide to enjoy spring break together. With no money in their pockets, three of the girls decide to steal a restaurant using a hammer and squirt guns in order to fund their escapade. But when their partying takes a turn for the worse, they end up caught in more crime activities with Alien (James Franco), a local rapper and gangster.

For most of its first half, the film touts the moral struggles of Faith (Gomez) as the main point of the film. Faith is torn between her religious upbringing and the party-going antics of her friends. She seems to be the central character of the story as we see her struggle with her desire to have fun and feeling a bit like an outcast with her friends and other partygoers.

So when the film decides to, inexplicably, get rid of her character at the half-point of the film, it loses the emotional resonance it might've had. This is worsened by the fact that none of the other three girls really stand out in the story, with all of them being more or less interchangeable. Franco does his best to keep things together with a surprisingly quirky and assured performance. What his Alien might've lacked in depth, he makes up in charisma, and he fills whatever scenes he's in.

Korine's direction is solid, and interesting at points, as he intersects images of beach parties and fun, with more somber images of the drug use and debauchery of spring break. But the film strong points aren't enough to avoid the film from feeling disjointed and muddled. As the film reaches its last act, everything in it feels empty and meaningless. But I'm sure that's how spring break really feels to some.

Grade:

Maybe it went over my head, maybe not... but for what it's worth, that's what I wrote about Spring Breakers back when I saw it in 2018.

oooooooh.... those two are where you should head right away. Gummo is one of my fav films of all time.

I just found Gummo on archive.org, so that's up for tomorrow!

I watched Julien Donkey-Boy this morning and loved it.

Just so you know, no real cats were harmed in Gummo.


There is a fairly brief scene at the beginning of the film which was simulated.

I've only seen Spring Breakers. I like it.

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This is also the breadth and depth of my Korine experience.

I’ve only seen Spring Breakers. It was ok.
I’ve known about Gummo and Julian Donkey Boy for awhile, but haven’t watched them yet.

Thank you very much. I had heard that there was a scene, but IMDB seemed to clearly indicate it was fake. But having a second set of eyes sets me even more at ease. As long as it's fake, I am not worried about the inclusion of that fake content in film---I might not like it, but it can be excusable for a higher purpose.

He wrote Kids & I’ve seen it a million times.

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Holy shit I hated Kids. Good flick, though.

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