A guy I know, more of a friendly acquaintance than a friend, raved to me about Gummo. "There's this scene," he said, "when this bunch of people kick the crap out of a chair, nothing else happens in the scene, and it's brilliant, because the chair ... is ... life."
I watched it and he was telling the truth. The main objections to it that I've heard are based on the objectors' distaste for the people in the film: I don't like this film because the people in it are horrible and boring. This is not a judgment on the film, but on the people who have the objection. Gummo is true - after watching it, I looked out the window of my girlfriend's flat and saw the Dublin equivalent of the characters in it, hanging around a piece of ugly urban sculpture in the blazing sun, drinking two-litre plastic bottles of cider. It was, in a bizarre sort of way, a beautiful moment. (Though maybe not for the cider drinkers.) I don't know what Harmony Korine is going to do next, but he never has to worry that he hasn't yet made a great film.
I watched it and he was telling the truth. The main objections to it that I've heard are based on the objectors' distaste for the people in the film: I don't like this film because the people in it are horrible and boring. This is not a judgment on the film, but on the people who have the objection. Gummo is true - after watching it, I looked out the window of my girlfriend's flat and saw the Dublin equivalent of the characters in it, hanging around a piece of ugly urban sculpture in the blazing sun, drinking two-litre plastic bottles of cider. It was, in a bizarre sort of way, a beautiful moment. (Though maybe not for the cider drinkers.) I don't know what Harmony Korine is going to do next, but he never has to worry that he hasn't yet made a great film.