Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

As a fan of Korine's work that I have viewed so far (Gummo, Spring Breakers), I have been looking forward to viewing JDB for quite some time now. Finding a copy of the film was the toughest part, but I eventually did come across one, and the viewing certainly did live up to expectation.

Julien Donkey-Boy is Harmony Korine's second feature film, and follows the lives of a dysfunctional family. The father (Werner Herzog) is mean, brutish, tough, and creepy. He is hard on his children; a pregnant girl (Chloe Sevigny), a wannabe wrestler son (Evan Neumann) and a schizophrenic son, Julien. The film essentially has no real plot. Instead, we follow this family around for a few weeks or so. Time feels irrelevant. We see the family get up to many things. The father is constantly pushing his wrestling son to be tough, and doesn't appear to have a care for Julien, who clearly needs love and kindness around him. Various events happen. As I said, it is hardly plot driven. More so just an insight into their vastly interesting and obscure lives.

What connected with me the most with this film was the realism. JDB is easily one of the most real, honest, most human films I have ever seen, and I would also say that for Korine's other films. What Korine does so incredibly well in his work is creating a world. The film genuinely feels like a documentary. With the combination of the filming style, to the characters, to the events, to the performances - this film genuinely feels like real life. Quite an obscure and uncomfortable atmosphere is felt, and it comes very naturally. The film feels as though Korine has got his old video camera out and filmed this random family for days. We maybe don't know people like this personally, but we know there are people exactly like this out there in the world. We are taken on a journey by the filmmaker and delve into these peoples lifestyle for a period of time, and it is utterly fascinating. The approach to the film is in no way insulting or degrading these people, it is an honest and fair depiction of their lifestyle. That is something that I cannot praise Korine enough for. He looks at these people with such care and emotion and honesty, that we connect with them as human beings. We do not look down upon them, with walk along side them and become part of their lifestyle for the duration of the film. As we watch disabled people enjoy themselves, we get a feeling of real happiness within us. A real humanity. This film oozes with realness. It's hard to believe it's fiction.

As I mentioned, this is helped massively by two things: the visuals and the acting. The visual style of this film is what will divide viewers. With extremely rough, grainy, pixelated, blurry visuals, some may watch it and feel as though it is headache inducing. For me, however, this visual style that Korine loves so much simply adds to the films realism. It feels as though this is home footage. As if there is actually someone down there with these people, filming them with an old video camera. Again, as I said, it feels like a documentary. As if I am watching real people, real lives, real events. And there is something emotionally engaging about that. The camera moves so naturally, as if it were handled by someone who was sitting right there with these people. It doesn't feel like a film, the camera doesn't flow smoothly like a Kubrick film. It isn't mapped out like a PTA long take. It just moves and observes, as if by freehand. Once again, adding to the realistic feeling of this fi

Fmovies: This movie isn't for everyone, and both fans and detractors of the film must accept that. Someone who loves this film isn't automatically "pretentious" and someone who hates it isn't automatically "too stupid" for "art". That being said, I feel as if this film should at least be given a chance by everybody whose interested deeply in the movies. It is in no way a conventional film, it combines all sorts of styles and moods while still miraculously maintaining all of the requirements to be labeled officially as a dogme 95 film. In itself, that is quite the achievement, but Korine's brilliant film goes lightyears beyond accomplishing only that.

Most people may believe that there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy, at least in most cases, but I fervently disagree, and films like "Julien Donkey-Boy" could be the best evidence I have for this belief. Harmony Korine does not bore audiences with constant brooding drama, but he does not pander to them by providing constant comedy. Instead, he shakes things up a bit on a scene by scene basis, or sometimes just on a minute to minute basis, or even a second to second basis; there are scene in this film that tackle the very difficult task of being both roaringly funny and deeply sad in a comparable fashion to such gems as "Happiness" or "Lolita". The film focuses on many troubling, disturbing themes, including mental illness, incest, death, abuse (physical and mental), deformity, loneliness, sadness, etc, but it's hardly ever downright depressing. It is tense and shocking, but only rarely can I say it made me feel really bad, and whenever it did that's because it was supposed to, and I realized that n these moments Korine is just doing his job, and he's doing it absolutely wonderfully.

"Julien Donkey-Boy" is an intensely evocative and emotional experience filled with memorable characters and moments, bits and pieces of philosophical dialogue, awkward black humor, perverse behavior, terrifying imagery, disorienting editing, avant garde beauty, and plenty more are constantly showcased during the entirety of this entertaining, yet artistically extreme and highly ambitious (to an almost unrealistic level) film. You may love it, you may hate it, you may love some moments, and you may hate others. It can be seen as either a huge, tonally confused mess or a refreshingly original take on the dysfunctional family drama (if that's even what it wants to replicate, implying that such a cryptically bizarre film would really want to replicate anything). It's got moments that made me laugh out loud and others that made me choke on my own tears. There is one scene in which a man swallows a shocking amount of lighted cigarettes, and other scenes include a rapping albino, a man without any arms who drums with his feet, and plenty more. These are real people that see to have been plopped into a fictional world, Harmony Korine lets his imagination run wild despite dogme 95's extreme limitations. He's a fearlessly unique and surreal filmmaker, a man whose films make my mind explode with confusion, happiness, and melancholy. Too bad he had to go on to make sh*t like "Trash Humpers"...

There is a line that separates two types of independent art-house films often misconstrued as one. One side of the line is populated by films that are inventive and disturbingly stimulating of emotions, usually a completely nude display of unpleasant things and people. The other side is comprised of films that are shocking, repulsive, and generally don't move forward with their stories, instead shuffling sustained sequences where virtually nothing changes, shapelessly finding its way to the end of the movie. julien donkey-boy could either be lying perfectly upon this line between both types of films, or it could be the latter type. Usually, the latter type can be very basically and degradingly entertaining, voyeuristically tempting you to continue watching its stylistic repugnance.

A bigger part of me likes julien donkey-boy. A smaller part of me doesn't. The part of me that likes it is fond of the gritty, demented use of the camera. The film's setting, a trashy, lower middle class environment full of generally unhealthy and unattractive people, is appropriate for Anthony Dod Mantle's bleak, very very grainy and unglamorous lens. Upon reflection, I realize that the film was really trying to say something, but the part of me that doesn't like it tells me that it's too immediately unclear and abstract to be fully understood.

The film's unabashed, possibly record-setting weirdness could be neither a plus or minus, and rather something meant to challenge the viewer, to make us reflect on the judgmental perspective that keeps many from understanding films like these and characters like those that are in it. So I suppose the verdict is that it's a good movie, but for a rare and acquired taste.

Julien Donkey-Boy fmovies. I wasn't sure how this film was going to appear when I finally saw it. I felt "gummo" was a great film, and didn't see exactly how this was going to compare. "Julien" actually seemed to surpass in reality. It was in no way a mainstream film, but on the other hand, it was not too "artsy" to be understandable. It kept my attention the entire time. I was intrigued not only by the film techniques but by the story it told. The characters were outstanding considering nothing was scripted. I thought the end of the film was very offensive when watching it, but thinking back on it now, it was handled very well and the movie was telling a story. All actors were very believable, and Svengy did a magnificent job. I think my favorite part in the film was the scene in the thrift store. I was also very happy to notice Will Oldham in the party scene and then see a thank you to him in the credits. If "gummo" intrigued you, this film will also.

having read all of the reviews of this new experiment from Harmony Korine, i was prepared for a rough, baffling, and possibly somewhat painful movie-going experience. the truth is, though, that i not only found this movie completely watchable, but i found it to have a STRONG emotional core and a cohesive thematic tract (and very funny, in parts...though i can never tell with Korine what is supposed to be funny and what is not). don't get me wrong: this is by no stretch conventional drama. in fact, there's hardly any drama here at all (the closest thing to real drama comes in the scenes with Werner Herzog's unbelievably abusive character). the emotion here comes from something that i can only call purely cinematic. the downright abstract editing juxtaposed with the hyperrealism of the Dogma 95 camerawork really makes for an intense visual experience. and the individual scenes tend to make more sense than in Korine's previous work (particularly Gummo). certainly, some of the scenes seem a bit excessive. i suppose if you tried to view this (or any of Korine's work) as some kind of social commentary, then you would inevitably be offended at some of the things here. but this isn't social commentary; this world on the screen is by no means a convincing depiction of the real world. every person on the screen is somehow sick or outcast, and i guess the major theme of the film is simply how we deal with our individual sicknesses. i guess this is a film that if you have a strong interest in seeing it in the first place, then you will really get something out of it. if you have no interest in seeing it, then chances are you'll never even hear about this movie (and you'll never read this commentary). for my money, Harmony Korine is no dilettante (and no slut!); he is one of the few true individuals making movies today.

To represent the life of a schizophrenic through the medium of film, would be quite challenging, really. How could you possibly relate the total random madness and desperate attempts at self-control of a madman onto film? One would be wise to choose Dogme 95, as the life of these unfortunate people seems to be affected by and largely governed by, a series of rigid and obtuse beliefs, regimens or rituals put in place to form some sort of foundation in an otherwise random, "crazy" existence. They then hold fast to this foundation for dear life - white knuckles. Since these "rules" they live by come from insanity in the first place, and are not typically adaptable, or flexible, as life would require them to be, everything they attempt becomes convoluted and lost in madness and confusion. And so everything is completely unsettled, because they can't adapt. Dogme 95, with its odd, rigid requirements, vis-a-vis the "Vow of Chastity" (www.dogme95.dk) goes a long way toward capturing that dynamic.

This film comes pretty close to nailing the day-in, day-out obstacles that mentally ill people must encounter, making something as simple as a bus ride to work a harrowing adventure fraught with slopes. The whole thing reminds me of the LSD scene in "Easy Rider" with the call girls in the grave yard. That was as close as I have ever seen to a realistic depiction of an acid trip in a film (you'll have to trust me on this one folks...), and this film has the same feel of reality to it. Almost as if it were a film about a schizophrenic, directed by and acted by schizophrenics. It's amazing.

Bremner is brilliant. I didn't even recognize him until I read the credits, and afterward I believed that he should have been awarded for this outing - just completely convincing. Almost as if this were a documentary. He just acts so completely mentally ill, it's amazing. He even somehow affects not only the dress, but the postures, facial expressions and characteristics that make him appear to be genuinely mentally ill. Wow.

Herzog's character is just so completely weird and obtuse and out of place in our culture that he is perfect here. Makes you wonder about other people you see walking around.

Not hugely entertaining in terms of plot, but a real treat for someone who wants to be compelled by the film maker's art. Harmony Korine is way smarter than me and you, folks. And I think it's way cool he can get his hands on film equipment. He is pushing the envelope, which is a lot more than I can say for most directors. Safe is boring.

Regard this film in the context of the first scene when Julien has his encounter with the "Pond Boy" and a plot emerges. What we see within the first two or three minutes is just astoundingly disturbing, and will clearly have consequences on the rest of Julien's life - all of their lives. Relate the rest of the film back to the first scene, and it's really rather sad. Everything that ensues has that hanging over it. You know that no matter what those people do, some day there will be a knock on the door and everything will unravel. Or will it? How could they be any more odd and troubled than they already are?