The Korine Formula

frankenbenz

http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/

With his new film Mister Lonely, Harmony Korine boldly declares what many have suspected since his first feature Gummo: that's it, that's all folks. Korine is by no means status quo and his fixations have little range outside of what can best be described as: odd. At the time it debuted, Gummo was visionary, a white trash masterpiece, a spectacle of filth, oddities, nastiness and depravity. There wasn't much of a story behind Gummo, but because it was loosely structured and resembled a documentary, it was more like watching sideshow freaks at the zoo than it was watching a movie. Nevertheless, Gummo felt far ahead of its time and proved to be an incredibly entertaining circus. Korine proved Hollywood wrong, that story was not always required, just as long as you provide viewers with a collection of fascinating oddballs and entrancingly unorthodox visuals.

But Korine's formula dated itself prematurely and his second feature, Julien Donkey-Boy, tried unsuccessfully to recapture the rapture of staring at freaks. JDB did nothing to dispel the suspicion that Korine was a one trick pony, a director more interested in parading before us a series of exhausting vignettes intent on using shock as a substitute for depth. In the seven year absence between JDB and ML, hope amongst fans of Korine grew, with expectations of Korine reclaiming his title as the infant terrible of American cinema. Unfortunately for Korine fans, ML does nothing more than confirm the director is an outdated, one trick pony.

Mr Lonely involves a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna), adrift in Paris until he crosses paths with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton). Monroe invites Michael to an impersonator's Shangri-La in the Scottish highlands where she and a handful of other impersonators live free from the intervention of the outside world. In essence this is a place where outsiders can feel at home by completely letting go of who they really are, affording them the ability to completely inhabit their pseudo-selves. Inexplicably intercut into the primary story is the very un-subtle tale of a group of blue nuns in South America who can miraculously fall from the sky without parachutes. Flying nuns...how ironic (wait until you see their denouement).

No surprise, Korine milks both story lines for every ounce of spectacle he can squeeze out of their unusual premises, their unusual settings and their unusual cast of characters. But few of these moments ring true, they instead come across as painfully contrived and purposefully profound. When watching you get the feeling the director is trying very hard to be different, unique and penetrating and instead comes across as a first year fine arts student wanting to stand out from the crowd.Despite being a blunt, boring, predictable and a shameless parade of eccentrics and odd behavior, ML does possess a handful of beautiful cinematic moments, where arresting visuals are married to hypnotic and reflective music. What elevates ML above JDB is the simple fact Korine and his cinematographer are no longer bound to the overly simplistic, fascist and pretentious rules demanded of Lars Von Trier's Dogme 95 manifesto (as was the case for JDB). With Dogme in the trash, so is miserable lighting, bad camera work, diegetic music and an overall lack of patience. In their place ML provides viewers with just enough visual and romantic charm to avoid being a complete turn off, yet sadly, still remains a challenge for viewers to not turn off their TVs to do something more rewarding...like washing their hair.

score 5/10

frankenbenz 13 September 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1945443/