{"id":9911,"date":"2024-12-10T23:50:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2024-12-10T23:50:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:50:41","slug":"gummo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/10\/gummo\/","title":{"rendered":"Gummo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Gummo <\/strong>(1997)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fine Line\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 89 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (pervasion depiction of anti-social behavior of juveniles including violence, substance abuse, sexuality and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Harmony Korine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Harmony Korine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Randall Poster (supervisor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jean-Yves Escoffier\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 17, 1997 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $116,799 (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: NO STARS!!!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like most critics, I try to avoid using profanity in my reviews. Even though I don\u2019t have to worry about rules dictating what I can and can\u2019t 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<\/strong> as crap but in this case, I\u2019m going to take the next step. Crap isn\u2019t a strong enough word to describe Gummo<\/strong>. This movie is pure shit! I\u2019m not even going to bother censoring the word; that\u2019s how strongly I feel about Gummo<\/strong>. It is a dirty, vile, reprehensible, disgusting, degrading, revolting piece of S-H-I-T! There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The writer and director of Gummo<\/strong> 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\u2019t pleasant but at least it had a point to make. It was kind of a cautionary Scared Straight-type film for parents. Gummo<\/strong>, on the other hand, is just unpleasant. It doesn\u2019t have a point. It doesn\u2019t have a plot. It doesn\u2019t have a single redeeming trait. To call it exploitative would be giving it too much credit. Yet I\u2019m sure there are some who will defend it as art. I\u2019ll address that shortly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Gummo<\/strong> is set in Xena, Ohio, a small, white trash town seemingly inhabited solely by degenerates, criminals and mentally ill persons. There\u2019s mention of a tornado that devastated the town some time before but it doesn\u2019t really have anything to do with what\u2019s going on now in Xenia. Or does it? Who knows? Anyway, Gummo<\/strong> follows a few characters as they live their daily lives. It would be one thing if these characters were even remotely likable, but they\u2019re 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\u2019re 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).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The sisters are the only decent characters in Gummo<\/strong> even if their combined IQ doesn\u2019t exceed the double-digits. The other people we meet aren\u2019t exactly shining examples of humanity. Okay, they\u2019re (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\u2019s in addition to all the shirtless men sitting outside talking and drinking beer. Yes, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As I watched Gummo<\/strong>, 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\u2019d 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\u2019d say that art is subjective and if we don\u2019t get it, there\u2019s no point in him explaining it. Either response would be equally condescending. I\u2019ve 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<\/strong>. I can see where some would defend it as art. Apparently, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can watch the goriest of gory horror movies without any problem. I hardly ever get sick from a movie. Gummo<\/strong> made me sick. It\u2019s quite possibly the most sickening movie ever made (after Caligula). It\u2019s even ugly to look at. All the stuff about killing cats made me want to barf. Be warned, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a piece of bacon taped to the wall. I could go on and describe other scenes but I\u2019m not looking to make my readers ill. Let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Commenting on the acting in Gummo<\/strong> serves no purpose. I\u2019ve 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\u2019s in it is because she was dating Korine at the time. You might also recognize Linda Manz, who played the daughter in Terrence Malick\u2019s Days of Heaven, as Solomon\u2019s mother. She\u2019s not a terrible mother. She expresses concern over his wanting to lift weights (eating utensils taped together) while he\u2019s still growing. That\u2019s before she dons a pair of her late husband\u2019s tap shoes and dances. Max Perlich of Drugstore Cowboy plays the guy who pimps out his disabled sister. That\u2019s it as far as actor recognition goes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Perhaps the only saving grace of Gummo<\/strong> is the eclectic soundtrack which includes a lot of death metal and cuts by Madonna (\u201cLike a Prayer\u201d), Buddy Holly (\u201cEveryday\u201d) and Roy Orbison (\u201cCrying\u201d). It\u2019s such an odd mix I couldn\u2019t help but find it mildly interesting. However, it does NOTHING to save Gummo<\/strong> from utter failure. It fails on every single level imaginable. It fails on levels not yet invented. Every synonym for \u201cbad\u201d in the thesaurus is equally applicable. As far as directorial debuts go, this should have been the end of Korine\u2019s career. It wasn\u2019t. He went on to make the far superior crime drama Spring Breakers. HOWEVER, there is no excusing a movie as terrible as Gummo<\/strong>. It\u2019s the kind of movie that gives arthouse cinema a bad name. Hell, it gives filmmaking a bad name. I\u2019d rather watch Ishtar, Heaven\u2019s Gate and Battlefield Earth on an endless loop than ever lay eyes on Gummo<\/strong> again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll close by saying that Gummo is also the name of the fifth Marx brother who left the act before they became famous. I don\u2019t know why Korine named his movie Gummo<\/strong>. All I know is that I wish it would drop out of sight like the real Gummo Marx.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gummo (1997)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fine Line\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 89 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (pervasion depiction of anti-social behavior of juveniles including violence, substance abuse, sexuality and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Harmony Korine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Harmony Korine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Randall Poster (supervisor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jean-Yves Escoffier\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 17, 1997 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jacob Reynolds, Nick Sutton, Linda Manz, Chloe Sevigny, Carisa Glucksman, Darby Dougherty, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Gummo-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9911"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10249,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions\/10249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}