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User
Reviews 16
Approval 95%
Soundoffs 8
Album Ratings 1099
Objectivity 63%
Last Active 04-22-21 3:46 am
Joined 01-18-14
Review Comments 13,364
| The Works of Harmony Korine
I have finally watched all of Harmony K's filmography, and it was a much needed film renaissance in my life. If anyone is interested in very weird and messed up art-films that can't be pigeon-holed into your basic boxes, I highly recommend this man's work. Let me know your Harmony Korine experiences. | | 15 |  | Pig Destroyer
Terrifyer
KIDS
Harmony’s debut script instantly established him as a vital artistic voice in the industry. I don’t particularly enjoy this film as it’s kind of a PSA beatdown, but it’s one that was very much warranted and paints an ugly (if only slightly exaggerated) portrait of teen sexuality. | | 14 |  | Michael Jackson
Forever Michael
Mister Lonely
This bizarre story of a Michael Jackson impersonater joining a commune of other celebrity impersonators is held back a bit by a fairly basic star-crossed lovers story even though it has all the essential Harmony Korine goodness and is an engaging watch throughout. | | 13 |  | Hail The Sun
Secret Wars
Snowballs
The thing I love most about Harmony Korine is how his films should feel so pretentious yet somehow don't. This short is the only one that I feel breaks that pattern a bit. It’s an interesting little watch but nothing special. | | 12 |  | Cavalera Conspiracy
Psychosis
The Legend Of Cambo
This 15 minute short tells the tale of Cambo, a young man fed up with society who has retreated into the wilderness and thrives there and films himself as he pontificates about life. I like this one a lot and could see it easily being fleshed out into a full film. | | 11 |  | Deftones
Around the Fur
Springbreakers
I absolutely hated the first 20 minutes of this film, I just couldn’t find the Harmony Korine in all of it. It looked glossy and high-budget, had actual Hollywood stars, and the scenes were actually lit… which was very strange. But this film won me over and I really enjoyed it by the end. James Franco is the undisputed star of this thing. | | 10 |  | System of a Down
System of a Down
Curb Dance
I really love this little short. It’s basically inane stream of consciousness vomit but it just kind of hits all the right buttons somehow. Only 4 minutes, I always get a chuckle out of this thing and it reminds me of how much I love Harmony Korine. Like I needed a reminder. | | 9 |  | Finch
Say Hello to Sunshine
Act Da Fool
Though this short is a mere 4 minutes long, it’s probably my favourite short of all time. I can’t even describe the feeling I get watching this thing, it’s so steeped in a powerful mid-90s nostalgia. It’s just this black high school girl monologuing a little bit about her life and her thoughts on existence at this point in her life; it’s weird, clever, funny, and takes an almost haunting turn at the end that really wins me over. | | 8 |  | Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz
Crunk Juice
Umshini Wam
This is a short about Yolanda and Ninja, a couple of wheel-chair-bound South African gangsters who wear pastel coloured onesies and roll around dropping verse, firing uzis, smoking comically oversized joints and generally being loveable doofs. It’s hilarious, sad, surreal, and oddly poignant: basically all your core Harmony Korine ingridients. The experience of watching this 15 minute short is a true delight and I would happily follow these characters go about their lives for hours. | | 7 |  | Tom Waits
Bone Machine
Julien Donkey Boy
This film completes Harmony’s first trilogy of films and it does so in a deafening, dramatic fashion. I absolutely love this film to death. The way it shows how mental illness is only exacerbated by moronic social constructs is really effective. The protagonist is very confused psychologically, and his surroundings only make that worse on every level. Werner Herzog's turn as the father is so damn incredible, that character was so fucked in the head I actually had my jaw on the floor throughout his scenes with the family. Harmony Korine is at the top of his game here, this film is near perfect, and that fucking cigarette eating magician scene is just never leaving my brain. Thanks Harmony. | | 6 |  | The Carter Family
Can the Circle Be Unbroken
Trash Humpers
While I was initially disappointed by this film as a follow-up to Gummo, I’ve come full circle on it and it's one that is just seared into my brain now for better or worse. It follows the lives of these unhinged gargolian creatures as they fill their empty existences with a delirious, almost dada-esque exibitionism. There’s several things about this film that really get under my skin, one of which is its ability to make you laugh in sheer perplexity and then make you feel just violated somehow. One of the terrifying things about these characters is that they appear to be young people in the prime of their lives, yet they wear these hideous rubber old people masks 24/7 even while sleeping. There’s just something claustrophobically menacing about that. | | 5 | | The Carter Family
Can the Circle Be Unbroken
Throughout the film you can watch their actions and maybe feel that this is a commentary on the failure of institution and extreme poverty that has driven these ‘people’ insane and to the fringes of society, but towards the end of film, through a genuinely spine-chilling monologue we realize that these trash humpers aren’t victims, they’re quite literally living their perfect lives to the fullest; Just one of many memorable moments when the inherent horror of this film comes seeping through. | | 4 | | The Carter Family
Can the Circle Be Unbroken
Harmony Korine’s performance as the lead trash humper is stunning and Joker-esque. The way he uses snippets of songs and tautological phrases throughout the film to induce an almost hypnotic state of dread in the audience is very eerie. Throughout the film he makes all these horrible noises and screeches and at first you think he’s just trying his best to be as obnoxious and unpalatable as possible, but as the film goes on these noises start to sound desperate, sad, angry, gleeful, almost in pain; a ranting, spastic whirlwind of human ugliness. | | 3 | | The Carter Family
Can the Circle Be Unbroken
One of my favourite scenes takes place in a basketball court at an elementary school in broad daylight while the trash humpers (in a rare solemn mood) sing a mournful rendition of Single Girl, Married Girl while cradling a doll in a plastic bag while a little fat kid awkwardly stands in the corner watching them waiting for his doll back. The scene is so fucking weird and funny I actually can’t stop laughing throughout.
But perhaps the best scene in the film is the last as the female trash humper (who seems to be the only one vaguely questioning their lifestyle and wondering if there’s something more to life) kidnaps a baby and pushes it in a stroller through a deserted neighbourhood as night falls, singing her own version of that eerie song that Harmony Korine’s character was working on throughout the film. The scene is just so stark and uncomfortable yet somehow poignant, leaving you just needing a cold shower and a palate cleanser. | | 2 |  | Burzum
Burzum/Aske
Gummo
I don’t know what I can possibly say about Gummo that hasn’t been said already. This film hit me in a way that so few do these days. A powerful combination of written/acted scenes and recordings of actual people going about their lives in a tornado-ravaged town in Ohio, Gummo unfolds in a potent series of vignettes that shock, endear, and really make a plaything of your emotions. From the opening scene of the mysterious Bunny Boy raging in a proverbial cage on an overpass to the jaw-dropping tornado footage set to the song Crying that closes the film, this is a beautiful, complex, nasty film and an outrageous debut from Harmony Korine. Right out of the gate he proved himself to be an auteur and at such a young age, it’s kind of mind-boggling. I could go on for pages about each individual scene, there is so much to chew on in this film, but I will say my favourite scene is the ‘give me a smile’ scene in the basement with Solomon and his mother. At risk of repeating myself again | | 1 | | Burzum
Burzum/Aske
it’s somehow terrifying and disturbing yet sad and touching. You’re just left feeling so unsettled with your mind reeling throughout most of this film, it truly pushes the thresholds of what you’re willing to handle in extremely smart and subversive ways and it’s currently one of my favourite films of all time and one sorely underrated and important to modern cinema. | |
artiswar
12.01.17 | GET IT GET IT
make it make it, don't fake it | brainmelter
12.01.17 | awesome list. I saw kids really young so it didn't affect me like it should have had I seen it at an older age first.
and gummo is a trip, trash humpers always looked like a little too much, but there seems to be something very nihilistic about it, so I'll probably check it one day. | artiswar
12.01.17 | You should watch Julien Donkey Boy. It's a much more logical progression from the Gummo-style filmmaking. Trash Humpers is like the malicious detour in-between. | Papa Universe
12.01.17 | Goodness | cylinder
12.01.17 | Thanks for the guide, I’ve been meaning to check this guy for a while now | artiswar
12.01.17 | I fucked up the order, Snowballs should be dead last but oh well. | gagnonov
12.01.17 | i've yet to see Julien Donkey-Boy, but i absolutely love his other works. Mister Lonely weirdly reminds me of Barry Lyndon in a lot of ways. | artiswar
12.01.17 | I need to watch Barry Lyndon, I've been meaning to do that I just don't usually have a 4 hour chunk of time to set aside for it. I'm fixing to watch it in the near future. Mister Lonely reminded me of a lot of things. I was getting so many weird vibes from that film... The Last Circus, Dogville... The Room... | gagnonov
12.01.17 | dogville is bae | artiswar
12.01.17 | that movie blew me the fuck away | Risodo
12.01.17 | Gummo is incredible | EyesWideShut
12.01.17 | not big on Korine at all but Spring Breakers is the most accurate depiction of today's white suburban youth put to screen yet.
Gummo got a M/ soundtrack | artiswar
12.02.17 | Yeah the Burzum sequences are great. The bm song that plays over the credits is rad too. | artiswar
12.07.17 | So apparently his next film features Matthew McConaughey and Snoop Dogg. I need this now. | Toad
12.07.17 | Fucking love spring breakers. one of my favorites of all time. gummo is a masterpiece as well. really liked KIDS too. i guess i'll have to see trash humpers soon | artiswar
12.07.17 | Watch Julien Donkey Boy. Werner Herzog plays one of the central characters and it's fucking amazing. Also really recommend his shorts. They're all available on Youtube pretty much. | artiswar
12.23.17 | I knew a guy who was dyslexic. He was also cross-eyed, so everything came out right. | Middle18
07.30.18 | Black albino straight from Alabama! | artiswar
07.30.18 | you win an internets. don't go spending it all at once! | Sharkattack
07.30.18 | Julien and donkey boy was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. I like this director a lot though. He’s done some fucked up films | Sharkattack
07.30.18 | Also is that korine in your profile picture? | artiswar
07.30.18 | yes it is. i went through a phase where i was watching Gummo and Julien every other day. i can't wait for his next one, The Beach Bum. |
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