Hello!
Well, I really enjoyed “Mister Lonely”. I was very exciting about watching the film because I’m such a Korine’s follower.
The thing is that the movie begins to fail when the last half hour begin, where, I think, all become a little repetitve. The first hour is amazing, so haunting with all those nouns flying in the sky and that kind of thing which definetly gives some dreamlike atmosphere, as you said in your review. But then everything turns in like another movie, with a very slow narration and it seems like everything that Korine wants to show and film with “Mister Lonely” alredy has been done in the first part. From there the movie start to deceptionate.
But, despite what you said I don’t think that “Mister Lonely” is like another Korine movie. I think that this one is the more “accesible” film that he ever made and also the most ambitious. And I think that he made movie with some good moments but with a history that definetly could have give much more
(And sorry about the english… :P)
I really enjoyed “Mister Lonely” too. Korine does everything people who should know better claim that Matthew Barney does. It’s a conceptual art peice rather than a narrative. But unlike Barney’s vaseline-covered idiocies it really works.
Korine is a genuine oddball, rather than a mere poseur. He’s scarcely to every taste but if you’re in an adventurous mood he can be quite lively.
He just put out a great collection of all the various zines that he and Mark Gonzales have made over the past fifteen years, simply called The Collected Fanzines of Harmony Korine.
It’s an incredible collection of hand-made art, and if you can find a copy I highly recommend picking it up, though it’s currently out of stock at Amazon… and probably will be for a very long time. His books are notoriously hard to get a hold of.
gummo and kids were great. the only good thing about julien donkey boy was werner herzog. i couldn’t watch more than ten minutes of mr. lonely
apparently only four people like korine. five, if you count my wife, who’s obsessed
Gummo and Julian Donkey Boy are two of my favorite films.
Mister Lonely is shit from beginning to end. That’s not true. The very first shot of the film, where the michael jackson-impersonator rides a motorcycle in slow mo, is quite memorable.
Still, he’s one of my favorite directors, one bad film won’t change that.
But Mister Lonely really disappointed me. The idea of impersonators getting together is great, but nothing interesting comes out of it.
So, KORINE, make another film, and don’t let 8 years pass before we see a new one.
His literary work is interesting, A Crack up at the Race Riots is enjoyable and worth checking out.
Gummo is a Wound… a Be-Bop masterpiece… Chloe in s-l-o-w- motion and tape on her nipples.
Fuck,
I really want those fanzines…
Gummo is dank, yo. hahahah. seriously, though.
I think that Julien Donkey-Boy is an incredibly interesting film, both in form and in content. To simply discount it and other Dogme-style films (I know it didn’t abide by all the rules) is to discount a truly important and original recent film movement. Whether you like Julien or not, you should check out other films in this style to see if there is one you do connect with. There are some really nice Dogme films out there, and I can’t wait to see more of them myself.
Julien Donkey-Boy is very funny. There’s a lot of absurdity in that film that I think is overlooked and that’s where the humor comes through. Like, for instance, when Julien is giving the monologue in his room and he seems to think Hitler made some sort of appearance in the Bible where he asked not to be hit on his left side because “it hurts”. And when Julien goes into the confessional saying that Jesus has been telling him not to be a part of the church haha. There’s some absurdity in juxtaposing Jesus and Julien together, quite strange. I also think it’s a great looking film, it has its own rhythm.
GET EM UP UP AGAINST THE WALL!
lol, jk. thread title sounds major totalitarian. are they gonna get arm bands?
Gummo was the peak. One of my top movies. I was sadly disappointed with Mister Lonely.
the thing i like most about korine is his ability to capture moments (in film and in his writing) that are genuinely unique and true to his personality. he’s inspiring in the sense that he shows images and tells story that aren’t derived by anyone else but himself.
“we all see the same movies but we’ve all lived different lives”
-harmony korine.
Big fan, I think he’s discounted as a provacatuer only, but Gummo is really an intelligent piece of Americana that should be view alongside something like The Right Stuff. I liked Mr. Lonely as well, but it’s certainly a “gentle” movie, and bothered people who wanted it to be more “sick”. It reminded me of the more laid-back experimental stuff from the 60s. Also, a side note, I met Harmony, and he went out of his way to sign every dorky fan-boy’s import copy of Ken Park, and was very friendly and personable.
The most sentimental offering from Mr. Korine, which isn’t a bad thing. It also has some of the most contrived emotional moments. It’s also really fucking silly at heart and in love with it’s characters so all is forgiven. Just as he intends it I think, If your not happy with one part just wait around and you’ll probably get into the next part. I think this is a better way to make movies. No plot, just scenes and the story comes though organically not through plot points. You will believe nuns can fly. I’m obsessed with a few subjects in my life; outsiders, and pop-culture. Here the two are brought together to a wonderfully imaginative level to give us a story about faith. Not faith in god, or people, or even good, but faith in the unknown. Faith in the idea that something more than you as an individual is important, and at the same time you as an individual are just. Is it a comedy, a tragedy? It’s both at the same time and neither. It’s an anti-genre picture that celebrates and pokes fun at ourselves threw our idols. It isn’t making fun of them, just having fun with them. And in turn it’s poking fun at us as a species. When does the question of faith really become an important part of us as a species? Is it in times of isolation? Goodbye chair, you have been a good place to sit. Goodbye bed, you were good when I needed to rest. Goodbye heartache, you were there when I needed to heal. I love you people.
i can totally relate to harmonys form of writing but not of filmaking. he just writes the images that pop into his head and write a script, that certainly worked well for gummo and julien donkey boy, because they had no narrative, and therefor no story, wich made them interesting and actually cool.
but in mister lonely he tried to make an actual script using the images, i loved gummo and julien, but i just dindt like mister lonely that much, i thought it was too forced, and boring.
oh, and diego luna was not the perfect guy for the part, in some scenes you can totally sense that he had no idea of what to do when korine told him to improvise, a good exaple when he says good bye to everything in his appartment, and he also has some akward silences when talking to samantha morton, who truly was superve.
Loved Gummo. Thought well of Mister Lonely, barring the eggs scene near the end.
He is one of my favs. Love all he does. he is jesus korine.
I absolutely loved that film, from beginning to end. The first scene with Diego Luna riding that mini-motorcycle is amazing. It’s just another genius work, and like any other genius work, it’s hard to digest by many.
It’s a film to let yourself go, like a child.
Mister Lonely is a masterpiece… It seems that nobody understands this beatiful and strange film… Among Straub&Huillet and Rivette.
I agree whole hog about “Mister Lonely”
If people really want a story out of Korine, I’m surprised they’ve hung on this long
More than adequate all around: acting, editing, cinematography, jokes, tension, surrealism, HERZOG
Just posted this at Mister Lonely’ page at the Auteurs:
Harmony Korine has that unique sense for details, what is the historic premise of an artist, as well as to pointing at the wandering soul – somewhere in the madding crowd, or at the lonely place, far, far away.
… and couple week ago at Gummo’s
Gone with a wind for sure! And this is “Gone with a Wind” for the 21. Century!!! If you need an explanation, send a message to me, please.
Long time ago I was stunned by “Kids” and pretty soon I’m going to watch “Ken Park” and “Julien Donkey-Boy”.
So, Harmony is a genius!
The only work of Korine that I will surely one day revisit is in Hype Williams’ “Belly.” In that scene when “Gummo” is playing on DMX’s big screen television. I’m damn near certain it will be on some friend’s television set and I’ll be polite enough to not say throw on something else.
the telephone call scene in julien is a compliment to cinema. Korine is John Waters with a little Malick thrown in; the man will be around a long time.
Mister Lonely is a beatiful film about loneliness and wanting to belong; I watched it in theatres then after michael jackson died
I love Harmony Korine’s movies.
Gummo
Julien Donkey Boy – which I really love
Mister Lonely – I enjoyed it, I need to re watch, I saw it once, I have seen Donkey Boy and Gummo like ~10x
I CANT WAIT FOR TRASH HUMPERS
i enjoyed Ken Park and Kids as well
I have this book he did called pass the bitch chicken but its just photocopied photos splattered with like black ink, I want Crackup At the Race Riots and his collected screenplays
I have that book too rudy and crackup is hilarious
X.A. Coronel
I’m interested in knowing how alone or not am i and particulary discus Mister Lonely if you saw it.
i just saw it about 2 days ago and i was completely surprised cause i really thought that there was no korine left and as a lot of people i was not interested or expecting much from his latest film. but tomy surprise i found the same korine as always but obviously more matured but still he’s saying the same things he’s saying in his previous films. he has create a haunting-dreamlike pesimist story disguised as a strange pseudo-romantic comedy, he has created a perfect world for lost souls to live but this world is crumbling slowly until it will fall cause nothing is perfect and there is no running away from life and apparent “realism”, we see a nun miraclously surviving a fall from a plane, god save her or her faith save her, who knows? it doesn’t matter really but it’s not going to last. the film is like a contemplation of a utopian dream of a beautiful and strange world but characters like a darkly Charlie Chaplin will be part of Korine’s breaks and leaks to a world that can’t exist. i find it a poetic and beautiful statement of a dark and lonely world. it’s Korine allright but it’s suttleness and aparent positivism just makes it exquisite to find the Korine essence, it’s like looking for Bunuel in his less known mexican films restricted by the industry.
what do you guys think about this film? i know it’s sort of a particulary difficult film to apreciate by many reasons and most critics and korine followers didn’t seem to apreciate it, but for me as i’m explaining came as a beautiful piece of cinema and wasn’t expecting any of it.