Rating: Summary: excellent, but too weird for some Review: I loved the film, and I gather that some of the other reviewers like to call what they don't understand "pretentious." This is not supposed to be plot or dialogue driven. It is a sensory experience far beyond your average mall-going couch potato. Your silly reviews matter not, because i will soon claim all your pittifully under-developed souls and force you to watch the speeches of George W. Bush for the rest of eternity.
Rating: Summary: pompous... I want my $.99 rental-coupon back Review: Harmony Korine. What a winner. Watching mold grow gives me more artsy-fartsy good feelings than watching this, uh, narcissistic load of crap. Instead of buying this waste of media, would any of you buy a home movie of my dog defiling my carpet? 'Cause I would really like to call myself an artist and pass that off as cinematic art.
Rating: Summary: Some say he's pure evil Review: It seems as if I have a wonderful knack for finding wonderful films, just by stumbling across them on this wonderful invention known as the internet. I remember the day that I first heard about Gummo, a film by director Harmony Korine, who wrote the film Kids, which I saw a few years ago. It was a Sunday, I believe, and I was doing some research on a film called Happiness by Todd Solondz. Well, I came upon a listmania list on amazon where both films were mentioned, and something about the cover of Gummo intrigued me, so I began to research it, and watched the trailer countless times. I had nightmares that night about it, too. It seemed to me that this would be the kind of movie that I would never forget. So, i desperately sought it out. Once I finally found a copy, I watched it with HIGH HIGH HIGH expectations, and it surpassed every single one of them. Not only was it artistic, disturbing, and just plain sick at times, but also highly entertaining and the kind of film that you don't want to end. It has some gross stuff, I admit. I mean, 5 minutes into the movie, you see a cat being drowned by a kid in bunny ears, but once you look past the initial shock of some, or all depending on how easily offended you are, of the scenes, you'll find that every scene is critical to the overall feeling of suffering in the film. If you're looking for a light comedy, steer clear. If you're looking for an action film, stay away. If you're looking for ultraviolence, also stay away. However, if you're looking for the kind of movie that will leave you speechless after it's over, then get this as soon as possible, because you're already missing out.
Rating: Summary: great visual cinema Review: Movies are primarily a visual experience. Hitchcock said that no important information in a movie should be given by dialogue; information should be given to the audience visually. If you like directors who are primarily "visual" directors, such as Parajanov, Tarchovsky, Antonioni, Fellini, et al, then you may very well love this movie. I love this movie. It contains one of my favorite scenes of all time: the long bicycle ride with the heavy metal music in the background. Awesome. A beautiful movie about the beauty of life. Really. The narrator even says so.
Rating: Summary: Ugly people doing ugly things Review: This is total mind-pollution. This movie lacks a plot a seems like a compendium to the Jerry Springer show. I want my 88 minutes back. Harmony got lucky with KIDS.
Rating: Summary: Nothing Special Review: I watched this movie because it sounded like it would be a weird and maybe even disturbing look at an aspect of America that few would dare talk about let alone film. Unfortunately it was entirely bad. And I don't mean bad in it's artistic content.. I mean bad in that it makes other low budget "B" films look like a George Lucas producton. It's just that bad. The real problem here is that the idea itself was really great and original. Go into a small town which was hit by a tornado a few years before.. film the strange, disturbed, racist and even retarded people who live there and capture some essence of reality that makes for an interesting film. Sounds like it can't go wrong. It's the recipe for an instant art film. An underground classic right? This film should have fit into the new genre of Social Relativisim that has been made popular by HBO documentaries (and they've been doing social relativism in the u.k. for years now) The film trainspotting was born out of the genre of social relativism.. but Gummo falls short of any vision or even talent. It employs kids from the area and it's almost painful to see them have to supposedly act like themselves when in fact this is the film makers idea of who they are.. it's not them.. they are painfully shy on camera and barely move or speak above little mumbles. you can literally feel their uneasyness with the camera and the microphone and the lights. and it just goes on like this with one terrible scene after another. then it's becomes painful to watch. the real failure here is the film makers own total lack of understanding of the people he's filming.. i'd say he was naive and had no idea that ordinary people (especally young teens) may have a hard time standing in front of a camera and pretending to be something their not. if the director had just a little insight, he could have taken this situation and turned this into an amazing provocative film.. instead the kids have no understanding of what is going on and you can almost see them repeating the lines they memorized just a minute before. Sometimes they even look at the camera. You almost expect to hear the director say "and cut" High school students could have made a better film. It's entirely possible the film maker did this all intentionally. Maybe he was just entirely tired of everything in his life and just didn't care. Maybe he was intentionally waisting someones money. He certainly waisted my time. It goes to show that it takes more than a $20,000 35mm film camera to make a film. I couldn't finish watching it.. I switched it off half way though and thats something I rarely do. I'd rank it in the top 10 the most badly made films I've ever seen. The only positive thing I can say about this film is that if you're a film student, you should certainly see this film! You need to see how bad a film can be and this is a great example. You need to see what a film looks like that gets a D- grade. Remember, if all you do is film brick walls and then cut and edit the film so it can be watched that alone would earn you a C grade.
Rating: Summary: Beat Up a Chair, Today! Review: Gummo is classic American art-house cinema that doesn't hold back on its taboo of not being politically correct. This film is a wrong film, wrong in that it is all wrong, wrong, wrong and dreadfully worrying that most of what you see is pretty much somewhat real in a very wrong sort of way. The theme of "reality redneck theatre" does not seem very appealing, but this movie just transcends its exploitation material by simply staying within the realm of showing you what some awfully cheerless places in America are like. The people in this film are living in borderline poverty. They are the outcasts of society who has deemed them unfit for presentation to anybody or anything. Thus all the characters in this film share a common bond of just being able to do whatever the hell they want, among themselves, without the intrusion of the outside self-proclaimed "normal" world. For some reason you can not blame these people for what they are or the things that they do. Society has forced them to live separately. If any of these people where to appear before a judge for their lewd acts or sometimes downright criminal behaviour, the judge would likely give them a fraction of what a "normal" person would get just based on their socially isolated upbringing. Gummo is all about that remote world where these people live a different life because they are the direct result of capitalism - that small percentage that must exist in order for the rich to thrive. This is the epitome of the lower class. So why should a director not bring it to the screen? Why should we not see the stink that capitalism has created? Why should cinema only be devoted to the more "nice" things that we want to see? This is not exploitation material because it never, never, never, looks down on these people. You are right in there with them. The director could have just arrived on the scene and given us a lame story where the people go around pretending to be something that they are not. Here the actors, mingled with some real life folk, just play themselves out normally, as they would any other day in redneck town. THIS IS REMARKABLE CINEMA! As it stands Gummo is not a film that you will enjoy and is certainly sick at times, but it is great material that would likely be confined to the waste bin in Hollywood if these indie filmmakers did not go out and just do it for themselves. Gummo is for a tiny market, but is worth watching because of its non-mainstream unconventionality. Don't miss out on seeing this other side of life. It is a world that you have never seen before - although albeit maybe not something you WANT to see, but something you SHOULD see. Diversity is needed. Say thanks to Harmony Korine for giving you something different.
Rating: Summary: Ok ..... Review: This movie was a horrible waste of film and time. Not only was the plot very hard to follow, the acting was beyond unwatchable. This movie was possibly one of the worst i've ever seen. It was so bad i could'nt finish it, I nearly passed out.
Rating: Summary: Truth About Gummo Review: I read some reviews about this movie, and I just had to see it for myself. A lot of people who reviewed this movie are totally bias. Some people who like sick and twisted things call it art, which in fact it's not. This movie by no means is art. Maybe some of the messed up people can say it is because they relate. Those people have sad lives and are more than likely gothic. But the truth is, I'm going to give this movie and actual review. It's not art, it's a low-budget movie. There is no plot, no story, the script you can tell at times was half written. It's just a group of people who said, hey, let's get some of the most messed up ideas and turn it into a movie. There are some funny scenes in the movie. I think it's just a messed up, but sometimes funny movie. I wasent bored from watching it, I enjoyed seeing something new and different. I wasen't getting sick and ready to throw up from it. Only people who more than likely got sick from it were people with weak weak weak stomachs, or people who were in private school there whole life and never been out of the box before. I can't say who will and who won't like this movie. I can't say, action movie goers, or, drama movie goers come see this. All I can say is, if you come across this movie in your movie store, rent it just so you can say you've seen the most screwed up movie ever.
Rating: Summary: WASTE OF TIME!!!! Review: This movie was the biggest waste of time I'll never get back, don't bother with this one just let it go. Absolutly the most white trash movie ever!!!!! Wish I didn't even have to give this one a star!!!!
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