Rating: 
Summary: A Unique Slice Of Life
Review: Haarmony Korine's second film set out to push a few envelopes and break a few boundaries. Adhering to Dogme 95's strict vow of chastity, this is clearly Korine's "art" picture (not meaning to take away from his excellent first film, "Gummo"). This is a portrait of a young man named Julien and his family. My personal favorite was Dad: Calls his kids (Julien, Pearl, and Chris) losers, failures, etc. Wants his two boys Julien and Chris to be "champions, and winners." Although he was supposed to be the comic relief, I think Korine wants us to read deeper into the character. He misses his wife, and wishes that his kids could have turned out better. The kids all seem to get along and you get a mother-son connection between Julien and Pearl (his younger sister). There is really no plot which isn't necessarily a bad thing because it gives the viewer the impression that whatever was captured on camera would have gone on regardless of whether it was recorded or not-- I like that. I got the same impression from "Gummo," as well. I only recommend it to someone who is really into movies. As far as acting goes, the performances were outstanding. Again, it made you feel as though this was really happening. Also, Korine used hidden cameras and local people (who weren't real actors or actresses) to capture that lifelike essence. All in all, it was a good movie. Some scenes went on too long. Others madee me wonder why they were even included in the film. It was very hard to watch at times, but then again, isn't life the same way? PS: You'll NEVER forget the ending!
Rating: 
Summary: Harmony Korine is a Wunderkind
Review: I can't believe how young this guy is. He was eighteen when he wrote KIDS. That just blows me away. KIDS is a great film, but it is a Larry Clark film. This is a Harmony Korine film and it is truly something to behold. I am willing to make the bold statement that Korine is the best American film maker making moivies today. Why? Because his films are so bold. He has faith in his own aesthetic and that gives his work a sincerity, an originality, and a power that most films lack. He has a vision and then he realizes it. This weird little skateboarder is an artist. This is a movie for the true lover of the medium. If you have to have a linear plot line, pretty characters, or car chases, this movie is not for you. If you like convention, you will not like Harmony's movies. But if you are a fan of honest, iconoclastic art, buy Julien Donkey Boy. I loved Werner Herzog as the crazy father.
Rating:
Summary: Harmony Korine is a Wunderkind
Review: I can't believe how young this guy is. He was eighteen when he wrote KIDS. That just blows me away. KIDS is a great film, but it is a Larry Clark film. This is a Harmony Korine film and it is truly something to behold. I am willing to make the bold statement that Korine is the best American film maker making moivies today. Why? Because his films are so bold. He has faith in his own aesthetic and that gives his work a sincerity, an originality, and a power that most films lack. He has a vision and then he realizes it. This weird little skateboarder is an artist. This is a movie for the true lover of the medium. If you have to have a linear plot line, pretty characters, or car chases, this movie is not for you. If you like convention, you will not like Harmony's movies. But if you are a fan of honest, iconoclastic art, buy Julien Donkey Boy. I loved Werner Herzog as the crazy father.
Rating:
Summary: Morning chaos, eternity chaos...
Review: I love Harmony Korine. His films are not only thought-provoking, and beautifully shot, but they're fun to watch, in the sense that you're glad that you're not those people. Julien Donkey-Boy's plot cannot be explained in words, so I'll spare myself and you. I love the idea of Dogme films as well. I'm a big believer in purity, and with the Dogme movement, I think that it's astounding the filmmakers are making their films free of artificial lighting, artificial sets, and anything of the likes. I mean, yes, the quality of the film is not necessarily that of E.T., but Spielberg sucks. There's nothing wrong with the quality of the picture, it just takes a couple minutes to get used to. All in all, I think Julien Donkey-Boy is incredible. And for all those reviewers who say it's "too much like Gummo to be original," well, you must've watched a different film than I, because I don't even see similarities in the directing style. the only similarity i saw was in the cutting to shots of photographs, but every director has a trademark, so stop complaining, fewls.
Rating:
Summary: takes away all our sins!
Review: I loved "Gummo" - and so, when I heard the same nut was coming out with another one? You bet I was there. This movie is beautiful & about as far from intellectual as you can get. I like movies of all types, and it's fantastic when someone just creates from their gut. Listening to Special K talk, he sounds like a strung-out Cobain - but damn if he can make a good movie. Like "Gummo", it just lives and breathes on its own! Believe it or not, there is a very strong narrative here - not contrieved, but more organic, even natural? Like "Eraserhead", this movie just IS. "JD-B" is more akin to the work of Stan Brackage than, say, "American Beauty". It doesn't come with any discernable refernce points, and so the viewer has to deal with it on its own terms and without pretense - what an adventure! Kind of like stopping to talk to a bum on the sidewalk & she communicates her life story using a spoon and two bottle-caps because she lacks a tongue. I look forward to more work from the one and only Special K.
Rating:
Summary: Image
Review: I loved Gummo and own it on dvd also. At the same time i bought Julien after waiting about a year to see it. I was 13 and it was hard to see it. I have seen it and i feel breathless. It is a most beautiful film. The images are some of the best i have ever seen in my life on film and it is such a truthful film. Korine even used to spy cameras so the actors would interact with real people in the film. Korine is a new type of director and writer making new types of films. One of the best. Some hate him and some love him. They hate him because they have been conditioned by hollywood to only like one type of film. The others who know the truth are the real film viewers and makers. Hail Laird Henn! ( harmony's new moniker)
Rating: 
Summary: Still utterly unimpressed...
Review: I saw this movie originally in the NY Film Festival and something must be seriously wrong with me because, unlike so many obviously sensible viewers, I remain unimpressed. The performances are very good, the movie (as expected) feels almost like a docummentary, but I still find the over-the-top disfunctionality of the family portrayed there almost funny. Or was it a parody of disfunctional family movies and we did not get it? Was not Dogma (among other things) about realism in the movies?
Buy Dancer in the Dark instead!
Rating: 
Summary: fun with mediocrity
Review: I think that there should be a new rule added to the Dogma 95. And that, of course, would be: You have to be a good film maker to begin with. I find Harmony to be quiet charming when I watch him pontificate about changing the direction of cinema and achieving something real and groundbreaking (it's like I'm back in high school!!!) but then to sit through this movie really really, put a test on my nerves. This is one of those films that you watch all the way through for the SOLE purpose of feeling like you can really go to town when you say that it was bad, that the ending was anything but "transcendant" and that just because you find a bunch of oddities to cast, doesn't make anyone, at all, care. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Cloe Sevigny does bring a nice relaxed, and as much as this film would allow, intrigueing nature to her part, but that's as good as I can say about it. And just for future referance, letting actors improvise their scenes is generally a POOR DIRECTOR'S CHOICE. The actors will, 9 tens out of 10, get into a fight, and/or just repeat themselves, yes, repeat, repeat, repeat the same variation of a line over and over and over again. Watch this film, then watch Buffalo 66 and then hammer a nail through your forehead. I gave this 1 star: one for Cloe and an imaginary one for Werner Herzog, who wasn't good by any means, but he is Werner Herzog, after all. THIS IS DRECK!
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I think we should celebrate these types of films. This has been done very well. Just like any good film, there has been lots of thought put into what type of camera work...for example when time Julien's face is shown walking down the street with his curly hair glowing in that surreal sort of way. Maybe it's that I'm a very accepting person but the `disturbing' scenes in this didn't bother me at all. It definitely was not boring, I found it very entertaining, which is the purpose of a movie, is it not? And I felt relieved to be watching something different, being a dogma 95 film (I think it is?). I'm not too sure of the rules in dogma but this is an independent/underground type film for sure. Anyway, let's not complain about a film like this because the intentions are good and it itself is good, which compared to the rest of movies out today is very nice to see. I give it a five. Loved it.
-Cheers
Rating:
Summary: Not like Gummo or Kids!
Review: I was waiting for this movie to come out on DVD only to find out it was a big dissapointment. The filming is grainy, supposed to be hip and stylish but I think it's very annoying. The movie 'Kids' and 'Gummo' where much better, this movie is nothing like them. Also the blatant promoting of his wife featured in every one of his movies is getting old too. Harmony Korine, sorry to say pal, you just went from my hero to a big zero!
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