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I was completely and utterly enchanted by this film. The absurd, hyper-imaginative imagery, bizarre characterization and powerful themes of belonging and individuality are beautifully poignant. I’m not entirely sure as to what this movie is explicitly about in terms of story, as there isn’t much of one, but Mister Lonely seems to be relaying a very solemn message about the nature of reality and the fundamental human desire to escape from it. Korine contrasts the religious faith of a nun who falls from a plane and survives, with a commune of impersonators who believe they can live and perform forever as their celebrity counterparts. The film’s tale comes across as somewhat bleak in this respect as both the nuns’ and the impersonators’ falsely constructed realities and beliefs are eventually shattered. Korine highlights the lengths we will go to, the things we will become and the sacrifices we make to our individuality in order to fit in to the world in which we live. Mister Lonely was, for me, a stirring and powerful film, striking in its distinctive style and imagination.

Korine has an amazing ability to generate dialogue about his own films, and cinema in general. While Mister Lonely struggles to stand in greater context, it undeniable crafts an absorbing world upon itself that rewards anyone who takes the plunge. There are individual scenes in Mister Lonely that are so magnetic, so charged that you almost feel as if the air could ignite with wonder. Harmony has always had a knack for building characters that are nearly tangible on-screen in their eccentricities but also in their unrequited fallibility as humans. In Mister Lonely, Harmony shows us that he can also create equally powerful images; from the first time we see Marilyn to the skydiving nuns. If nothing else, this movie will refuel the cinemaphiles lust for a true auteur in an age of assembly-line “Indie” flicks.