Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More twisted genius from Harmony Special K-orine, June 23, 2001
Extraordinary second film from Harmony Korine. A portrait of a disfunctional American Family, with career performances from Ewen Bremner as the schizophrenic Julien, Chloe Sevigny as his heavily pregnant sister Pearl, and legendary German director as his overbearing and eccentric father. If you liked "Gummo", Korine's first film, you will assuredly love this film. However, if you despised Gummo for its lack of plot and linear narrative, I still would not necessarily advise you to steer clear. Although the style is again disconnected and fragmented, this time the events that unfold have a markedly more cohesive feel than in Korine's debut. Ewen Bremner is startlingly good as Julien - check his rambling psychobabble as he walks through the city, confusing passers by with lines such as the memorable and hilarious "Excuse me, is my family tree this tree, or that tree?" (Korine used hidden cameras for many scenes, in order to capture genuine reactions from unsuspecting interlopers and therefore, as Korine explains in the "making of.." documentary which supplements the film on the dvd version, "capture something real"). Werner Herzog is equally good as his father - you often feel that it is no wonder that Julien is so messed up, considering the way his dad treats him (and indeed the rest of the family) Chloe Sevigny also shines - this time as Julien's sister, who provides Julien with a mother figure (and a lot more besides!!!), the mother of the family having passed away many years ago. A genuinely original, affecting and at times frankly hilarious movie, you really should not miss it.
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19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Julien Donkey Boy, April 18, 2001
Although not for everyone, JDB is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word. If the highest goal of art and cinema is to realistically portray human life and emotion, as imperfect and ugly as it can get most of the time, then this movie succeeds on every level. You're literally brought into the mind of a young schizophrenic and his world, and watching this movie is a lot of work like films should be. Who wants to know what line is coming next like in 95% of Hollywood shlock? At the end of it all, you feel like you've just run a marathon although you've never left your couch, an like all of Korine's films, you're left feeling dirty and used. This is good! Emotionally, you can't help but be drawn into this world and feel the insanity and it is very unsettling. Visually, the grainy DV film and hand held camera work all add to the overall emotion and the editing and cinematogrophy are suberb! Really cutting edge stuff from a destructionist standpoint, where polished dialogue, posh sets and Hollywood extravagence are thrown out the window for reality. I've seen many films in my days and this one is groundbreaking in my view and sets the bar higher for other avante-garde filmakers. You owe in to yourself as a member of the human race to check this movie out.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A haunting, strange, at times hallucinatory film...., July 28, 2006
I remember seeing this with only 5 other people in the theater. No one left until the final credits were over. It then took almost 2 years to get to home video. I think this is an amazing film. Like Gummo, the plot of the film is unimportant. If you tell people what it is, they'll misunderstand it. The way the story is told here is what is most important. Korine is one of the few independent filmmakers out there that is truly independent, in that his films are not for the mainstream. There is no crossover appeal in julien donkey-boy (or Gummo), and Korine is not interested in it anyway. This film feels like a poem, or a piece of music, in which the feeling is most important, not a linear timeline. The whole here is greater than the parts, as opposed to most films, in which there are (sometimes) great setpieces in them, but as a film they're quite often uneven and disjointed. There are disturbing scenes (wouldn't be Korine if there wasn't), but it all seems to work here. Wonderful to see Werner Herzog as well. Excellent film...
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