| Gummo, well what can I say about this film, in a nutshell it is essentially a film about a town that has never recovered from a tornado. But below that, the tails that the Director, Harmony Korine, has woven are fundamentally sad, this town has lost something and it aint ever coming back, but the people live on. The narrative is seldom linear it is not about anything in particular, there is no imminent crisis, no-one is about to blow up the world, it is just about the town folk. The film takes you on a tour of characters within the town using two boys, who appear to make their living killing cats, using rat poison, then selling the cats to the local Chinese food shop. There is a very human quality to all the flawed characters that we are introduced to, you feel drawn into these peoples lives. From the Albino girl with the boom box car to the pair of brothers who fight about trainers and such, violence plays a huge part in this film, but it is an almost casual violence. Substance abuse is also a major issue within this film, be it glue-sniffing or alcohol, the story is about a dead town, a town with no hope, and a town with no future this is what happens when we have no future we seek to escape and we use anything to help us. What these characters do is fill time, that is what they have, this could almost be a prison movie, because fundamentally that is what the town-folk do, fill time. The girls want a man, want redder nipples or want a moustache, dammit, the men folk want each other, more beers, or a fight with that chair. The bunny-boy seems to epitomise the sadness within the town the lack of hope that they all share. Harmony Korine never lets you get under the skin of the character they are left only half drawn and maybe they should stay that way. Each character is a cliché, someone your parents pointed at and said ‘When you grow up do you want to be like that?’. Yes I want to be like that there is nothing wrong with it, far more interesting that the lives of the rich and famous. The individual characters can all be found out there in the real world, just here they are all taken and thrown together. This film does not offer the glamorous view of life that Hollywood wants us to see, this is life of real people, and their very real flaws. Also no hint is ever given for the title of this film, but here if you want is my opinion. The only other Gummo I can think of is the 5th Marx Brother, the one everyone forgets, the one who never made a film, and this film is about a forgotten town with characters the Hollywood and the real world tries to forget. Well that is my opinion for the truth you would have to ask Harmony Korine, and I’ll bet that I am a million miles away. I am in no doubt that this film will have critics queuing up to knock this film, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Films seldom touch me, nor do films make me think, but this film did both. |
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