Gummo (1997) Fine Line/Drama RT: 89 minutes Rated R (pervasion depiction of anti-social behavior of juveniles including violence, substance abuse, sexuality and language) Director: Harmony Korine Screenplay: Harmony Korine Music: Randall Poster (supervisor) Cinematography: Jean-Yves Escoffier Release date: October 17, 1997 (US) Cast: Jacob Reynolds, Nick Sutton, Linda Manz, Chloe Sevigny, Carisa Glucksman, Darby Dougherty, Jacob Sewell, Mark Gonzales, Max Perlich, Bernadette Resha, Daniel Martin, Jason Guzak, Casey Guzak, Bryant L. Crenshaw, Ellen M. Smith, James Lawhorn, James Glass, James David Glass, Wendall Carr, Donna Brewster, Bill Evans, Harmony Korine. Box Office: $116,799 (US)
Rating: NO STARS!!!
Like most critics, I try to avoid using profanity in my reviews. Even though I don’t have to worry about rules dictating what I can and can’t say in print, I want to sound professional. Gutter language is NOT the domain of the educated. I want to be taken seriously. I could stick to my guns and describe Gummo as crap but in this case, I’m going to take the next step. Crap isn’t a strong enough word to describe Gummo. This movie is pure shit! I’m not even going to bother censoring the word; that’s how strongly I feel about Gummo. It is a dirty, vile, reprehensible, disgusting, degrading, revolting piece of S-H-I-T! There’s not enough soap and hot water in the world to wash away the filthy feeling left behind by what can only be described as the most depressing, demeaning viewing experience since Caligula.
The writer and director of Gummo is Harmony Korine who made a name for himself with his screenplay for Kids (1995). It was a realistic depiction of a group of aimless NYC teens who do nothing but hang out, party, use drugs and have unprotected sex. It wasn’t pleasant but at least it had a point to make. It was kind of a cautionary Scared Straight-type film for parents. Gummo, on the other hand, is just unpleasant. It doesn’t have a point. It doesn’t have a plot. It doesn’t have a single redeeming trait. To call it exploitative would be giving it too much credit. Yet I’m sure there are some who will defend it as art. I’ll address that shortly.
Gummo is set in Xena, Ohio, a small, white trash town seemingly inhabited solely by degenerates, criminals and mentally ill persons. There’s mention of a tornado that devastated the town some time before but it doesn’t really have anything to do with what’s going on now in Xenia. Or does it? Who knows? Anyway, Gummo follows a few characters as they live their daily lives. It would be one thing if these characters were even remotely likable, but they’re not. The main characters are a couple of boys, Solomon (Reynolds) and Tummler (Sutton), who go around killing stray cats which they sell to a guy who sells them to restaurants. Remind me never to dine at ANY establishment in Xenia. They use the money to buy glue which they huff. The other major characters are these three sisters. Two of them, Dot and Helen (Kids co-stars Sevigny and Glucksman), look like they’re competing in a Cherie Currie look-alike contest. The youngest (Dougherty) is a prepubescent tagalong with a brilliant future as a toenail painter. They have a pet cat that mysteriously disappears (hmmmm).
The sisters are the only decent characters in Gummo even if their combined IQ doesn’t exceed the double-digits. The other people we meet aren’t exactly shining examples of humanity. Okay, they’re (mostly) scumbags. Among them are a couple of skinhead brothers who killed their parents, a guy that pimps out his mentally-challenged sister, a gay black dwarf, a mute boy wearing pink bunny ears, two extremely foul-mouthed little boys dressed as cowboys and a creepy old pedophile from a neighboring town. That’s in addition to all the shirtless men sitting outside talking and drinking beer. Yes, it’s that kind of town. I kept looking around for a trailer park but I guess the tornado took care of that. Korine intercuts these scenes with grainy home movie footage and voiceover narration about various occurrences in Xenia. This just makes it more pretentious.
As I watched Gummo, I imagined how a conversation with Korine would go down. If asked about the point of his movie, there are two probable scenarios. In the first, he’d deliver some spiel about it being an examination of how people on the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder have been marginalized by society or some such pretentious BS. In the other, he’d say that art is subjective and if we don’t get it, there’s no point in him explaining it. Either response would be equally condescending. I’ve met a few young filmmakers in my travels; these imagined scenarios are based on my experiences with them. In any case, there is no defense for a movie as bad as Gummo. I can see where some would defend it as art. Apparently, it’s become something of a cult film. I can honestly say that I have as much desire to meet a member of that cult as I do any of the people of the Xenia depicted in the movie.
I can watch the goriest of gory horror movies without any problem. I hardly ever get sick from a movie. Gummo made me sick. It’s quite possibly the most sickening movie ever made (after Caligula). It’s even ugly to look at. All the stuff about killing cats made me want to barf. Be warned, it’s fairly graphic. Not only do we get descriptions of killing methods, we get to see the two boys ply their trade. Where the hell are the police in Xenia? The boys ride around on their bikes with BB guns. Have they never been stopped by the police? Apparently not. There’s also a nauseating scene of Solomon eating his dinner (spaghetti and a chocolate bar) while sitting in a cruddy bathtub filled with dirty water. For some unknown reason, there’s a piece of bacon taped to the wall. I could go on and describe other scenes but I’m not looking to make my readers ill. Let’s move on.
Commenting on the acting in Gummo serves no purpose. I’ve never seen most of these actors and will likely never see many of them again. The biggest name in the cast is Sevigny and the only reason she’s in it is because she was dating Korine at the time. You might also recognize Linda Manz, who played the daughter in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, as Solomon’s mother. She’s not a terrible mother. She expresses concern over his wanting to lift weights (eating utensils taped together) while he’s still growing. That’s before she dons a pair of her late husband’s tap shoes and dances. Max Perlich of Drugstore Cowboy plays the guy who pimps out his disabled sister. That’s it as far as actor recognition goes.
Perhaps the only saving grace of Gummo is the eclectic soundtrack which includes a lot of death metal and cuts by Madonna (“Like a Prayer”), Buddy Holly (“Everyday”) and Roy Orbison (“Crying”). It’s such an odd mix I couldn’t help but find it mildly interesting. However, it does NOTHING to save Gummo from utter failure. It fails on every single level imaginable. It fails on levels not yet invented. Every synonym for “bad” in the thesaurus is equally applicable. As far as directorial debuts go, this should have been the end of Korine’s career. It wasn’t. He went on to make the far superior crime drama Spring Breakers. HOWEVER, there is no excusing a movie as terrible as Gummo. It’s the kind of movie that gives arthouse cinema a bad name. Hell, it gives filmmaking a bad name. I’d rather watch Ishtar, Heaven’s Gate and Battlefield Earth on an endless loop than ever lay eyes on Gummo again.
I’ll close by saying that Gummo is also the name of the fifth Marx brother who left the act before they became famous. I don’t know why Korine named his movie Gummo. All I know is that I wish it would drop out of sight like the real Gummo Marx.
