julien donkey-boy (1999)

Note: This review is full of spoilers!

Alas, Harmony Korine makes a mis-step. Of course, his film is still an interesting masterpiece, but it finds much room to fail. And again, this failure is due in part to our understanding film and the pre-hype that accompanies film as much as it is to Korine's desire to present a "drama," to have a "point."

First mistake: Korine makes the film using the "rules" of "Dogma 95," a silly concept set up by several foreign directors (including Lars von Trier, among others) in 1995 which had silly rules like: "Only use natural light." "Only use props available at the location." Korine follows these rules to the point of getting the film "certified" by the originators of the ideal. This "certification" document is shown prior to the film, after the FineLine logo. FineLine even took out ads where Korine "confesses" to his minor infractions of the creed of "Dogma95." And, in reading this ad, I found out way too much about the film. I knew too much going in. I could never watch the film with "new" eyes. I spent too much time thinking about the Dogma stuff rather than watching the film. One thing I noticed is that Korine also defies Dogma practice by putting his name on the film (in the credits). This is an infraction of the original rules. Even if it is in the end credits.

Still, "julien donkey boy" (sic) is the first American film to have the certification. Now, what's silly about this is that the filmmakers have attempted to rebel against formulaic filmmaking and tried to make us see the inherent beauty of film. But they've replaced one strict set of rules of filmmaking with another. It's "Dogma," alright, with only one set of staunch, archaic, laws overturned. But instead of allowing freedom in filmmaking, allowing filmmakers to simply do as they please, they are forced to adhere to a new set of silly rules. Thus, Korine feels like he must apologize for his trespasses against the dictums of the religion. Korine, and all these others, need to realize that the audience does not care. If a film is good, it's good. Whether it cost $1,000 or $140 million, we don't care. We just want to be rocked. We just want to be effected. We want films that will move us and take us through experiences we might otherwise never have. "julien donkey-boy" does this yet so does "Saving Private Ryan." One film is not better or no worse than the other, really. And, anyway, the whole precepts of "Dogma 95" were rendered null and void by the appearance of "The Blair Witch Project." Audiences don't care about the medium. They want the "message." They want the "experience." Whether it is 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, home video, DV... they don't care.

Regardless, the "confessional" ad also states that Korine shot the film in his grandmother's house. His grandmother plays a role n the film as well. This would be interesting, unusual and creepy, in a way, if we didn't have this background knowledge. It hurts the film in that we know who these people are in reality. Instead of wondering at how Korine found them and how he uses them, we feel we already know. We cannot begin to enact the "suspension of disbelief."

Korine's second mistake is using Ewen Bremner as the "lead" in the film. Although his performance is superb, we never, ever, forget it is Bremner up there. Again, Korine's style is so guerilla and obtuse that his actors must be unfamiliar. The familiar face ruins all of his precious momentum and seeming impromptu action. It turns his film into a "film." The one exception to this is Chloe Sevigny (Korine's real-life girlfriend). She is so perfect in the film, as the mother/woman/child, we cannot help but love her. Korine gets wonderful moments from her. She is brilliance in his rough diamond. She shines.

Meanwhile, Korine also uses Werner Herzog as the "father" of his ragtag family in the film. But Herzog was not so known to me, and therefore, he did not detract from the film as much as Bremner. And finally, there is Evan Neumann, in his first role. Unknown to us, but looking like a young, innocent Korine, he is brilliant and beautiful. He works so hard here and portrays a character that seems like such a sore thumb in the film. He works his ass off and we love him for it. He carves out a character that shines. He is the quiet in the storm, the eye of the hurricane. He is confusion and troubled reason in an insane world. And it is wonderful.

Korine creates a world of madness. Much like his "Gummo," Korine seems to go to suburbia, turn over the "proverbial" rock, and focus on what he finds there. Unlike Lynch, who brings us dark trouble and man's perversions, Korine brings us man's dark truth. His characters are too real. While Lynch heightens madness by making it seem so strange, Korine makes it seem all the more troubling by presenting it simply as reality. The characters here disturb us because they remind us too much of reality. We feel we know them. We feel this could be the people in the house next to ours, the neighbors we do not know. It's troubling and demented.

Some may think that Korine is poking fun at his subjects, but they would be sadly mistaken. Korine's camera loves his subjects, he treats them with respect, he does not judge. He simply allows what evolves to come on the screen. And, oft times, it is brilliant.

Korine people the film with blind persons, children, the mentally retarded, the elderly and the insane. He puts one "normal" character in the mix, in the character of Neumann's Chris, who cannot make any sense of what he endures. He is lost and teetering on the edge himself. He seems incapable of escape. It is harrowing to watch him. We want to reach out and save him. We can see him slipping, soon, into the same madness that revolves around him. We feel we can't save him. We sit helpless. We squirm. We cannot stand it.

But there is a different feeling about Sevigny. Korine uses Sevigny as his hope, his mother, his love. She is lost and abused here as well. In many ways, she is blind to the world she lives in too. She is sorrow and pain and loss. But we know she is already helpless. And we feel lost in her teetering madness. We see that she is slipping slowly down that slippery slope as well. But where we want Chris to get out. We hope Sevigny stays. The insanity Bremner's Julien endures makes him vulnerable and he needs Sevigny's Pearl to help him, hold him, and caress away his troubles. By film's end, however, we realize that she is a lost child as well. She has already fallen. She is unsalvageable. Not because she is bad. But because she is obviously not the mother, but the child instead. She is lost already.

"julien donkey-boy" presents a world lead by madmen and the mentally retarded. Korine seems dedicated to exposing all he can about the nature of "man" in this film. His film spends much time using religion as a motif. He questions the nature of man. He exposes men for the cruel cowards and mentally deficient creatures that they are. He shows us that the only truly happy are the blind because they cannot see the madness around them. They are blind to the disturbing moments we must endure here. In Korine's world, we are all children, lost or blind or stupid or naive. We cannot stop this lack of evolution. We are not allowed to grow. Either God or an abusive father or our mental deficiencies or our physical limitations will always keep us at this level. There is no tomorrow. Well, there is. But when it comes, it will be the same as today.

There are brilliant scenes in the film: Herzog endlessly spraying Neumann with a water hose in the obvious cold to make him strong, yelling at him for shivering in his near- naked coldness. The dysfunctional family at a black church where Bremner's Julien is so moved he actually cries. And Korine's camera focuses on his eye socket in a blurred, jarring, artistic moment of truth and purity. The scene is followed by a rapid-cut, disturbing sequence where Bremner makes food for Neumann and puts it in a dog dish. Korine, wisely, only highlights this segment. It becomes weird and surreal in his editing technique. It only hints. There is a troubling scene where Herzog tries to pay Neumann to put on one of his dead mother's dresses and dance with him. Neumann, confused and seemingly quietly troubled by it, simply refuses. Bremner and Sevigny (who play brother and sister), pretending to have a phone conversation where Sevigny makes believe she is Bremner's dead mother calling. We discover that the mother here died while giving birth to Chris, which makes the scene where Herzog tries to make him wear a dress by saying, "You look the most like your mother," all the more troubling.

Korine has a talent. He seemingly allows actors to improvise and then the scenes and themes to unfold at their will. (He claims only one scene was scripted here). His editing is brilliant. His use of camera is wonderful. His digital-camera pixelated look of film here is perfection, like sickening, disturbing home movies. His films present moments of troubling beauty and simple truths. He gets at the heart of the matter by allowing a film to follow it's course, with all it's natural twist and bends, until the truth is revealed.

But with "julien donkey-boy," Korine fails somewhat, where "Gummo" did not. He tries to imbue the story with "drama" and meaning and linear time at it's climax. He has an ending here that is as forced and as phony as any we've ever seen put on film. And, in the end, his film is all the worse for this. Which is sad. Because there is a stunning film here. It just gets too caught up in it's on bullshit at the end. It wants to be something it is not. In the end, Korine "tries" to make a film instead of following his instincts, and letting the film make itself.

Still, this is a stunning and troubling film. And it makes us eager for the next truths Korine will bring forth to the screen. He is a modern cinematic artist of unparalleled magnitude. And he opens world to us that we've never seen before, never dared to witness, never wanted to see. And makes us see that what we thought was frightening, and troubling and disturbing and weird is, in reality, human just like us. Filled with the same emotions and truths and hopes and frailties. And just as real - just as real. If only we dare touch it.

Notes:

Cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle, who has shot several "Dogma 95" films.

Edited by Vladis Oskarsdottir.

Report Card

Script: B-

Acting: A+

Cinematography\Lighting: B+

Special Effects\Make Up: A+

Music: A+

Final Grade: B-