"Mister Lonely"

Has Harmony Korine abandoned his artistic principles, or has he just machoored, as they say?

I ask because there's a scene in his new film Mister Lonely in which a herd of sick mutton have to be exterminated. Those of us who not-too-fondly recall the cat-flaying scenes of Gummo might have expected him to show the slaughter full-on. But here he keeps it discreetly off-screen. Now there's a bunch of name actors in this thing—Samantha Morton, Diego Luna, James freakin' Fox for heavens' sake. Maybe Korine read about Danny Glover John C. Reilly walking off the Manderlay set on account of that donkey killing and got spooked.

Nah. I like to think Korine—who I ran into here at Cannes two years ago when he was looking for financing for this, and who was as nice as pie—is just making better choices all around. Which isn't to say that Mister Lonely isn't one whacked-out piece of cinema.

Made up of four segments, each named after a Michael Jackson song (and not in a particularly apposite manner; "Thriller," for instance, isn't, although initial seg "Man in the Mirror" is a good generic hook for a protagonist's intro I suppose), Mister Lonely begins with Michael Jackson impersonater Diego Luna entertaining a Parisian old-age home with Marilyn Monroe impersonator Samantha Morton. If you are familiar with the physical appearances of Mr. Luna and the newly zaftig Ms. Morton you will immediately deduce that these two are not particularly effective Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe impersonaters. You don't get it? You got it. Marilyn spirits MJ to a castle in Scotland populated by a commune of ineffectual impersonaters, including Marilyn's husband Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavant), who is abusive to her in a way that at one point explicitly recalls Karl Bohm's sadistic treatment of Margit Carlsenson in Fassbinder's 1974 Martha. Which got me thinking about Mister Lonely as an experiment in the extremes of bathos, even though it is really a comedy of sorts. What with its chicken-worshipping Buckwheat impersonator, swear-a-blue-streak Abe Lincoln impersonator, and The Queen and the Pope impersonated by Anita freakin' Pallenberg and the aforementioned James freakin' Fox. Intercut with their story is the most elaborate flying nun joke ever concocted, starring Werner Herzog.

I dunno, man, I dunno. After the screening someone older and wiser than me was heard to remark, "Here in Europe, you can get someone to finance something like this with no problem; 3 million Euros, it's yours. And it's certain to get selected by a Cannes committee, a Venice committee. In the meantime, it's not anything that a couple in the 20th arrondissement, or on 68th Street in Manhattan for that matter, would ever pay ten dollars to see. Or put a penny into its production." Lest you think he was ranting, he pronounced all this with a wry smile. And why not.

Comments

[craig keller]

Glorious. A film I can't wait to see, by the greatest American filmmaker "of his generation" besides Bujalski. But who are the greatest overall living American filmmakers?

Easy. In no particular order: Jerry Lewis. David Lynch. Abel Ferrara. And the last few by Van Sant and Eastwood have been nothing to slouch at.

craig.

[Aaron Aradillas]

I rhought it was John C. Reilly who stormed off the set of Manderlay?

[Glenn K.]

You're right, Aaron. Thanks. I always get those two guys mixed up.

That guy doesn't sound older or wiser to me. Sounds like a typical suit who doesn't give a fig for cinema. And the budget was $9m, approx 5m Euros.

[Nothing]

That guy doesn't sound older or wiser to me. Sounds like a typical suit who doesn't give a fig for cinema. And the budget was $9m, approx 5m Euros.

[Aaron Aradillas]

No problem, Mr. Kenny. Those guys could be mistaken for brothers sometimes. Or, at least half-brothers.

[Aaron Aradillas]

Also, going back to our interview from a couple of years ago, I guess Harmony Korine is the real deal. This will be the 10th anniversary of that profile you did of Mr. Korine and told readers to check back in a decade. Your insight into the future is uncanny.

[J. J. Murphy]

Let's be honest: the cat scene is Gummo is nothing like the cat scene in Bela Tarr's Satan's Tango. Gummo is a knockout first film, despite Janet Maslin and all the other critics who simply didn't get it. So I can't wait to see Mister Lonely, and will gladly pay $10 to see it -- though it's true that Korine, despite his insistence that's he's a commercial filmmaker, has yet to prove himself at the box office. I would agree with Craig that David Lynch and Gus Van Sant are at the top of their game, so I was happy to see that Van Sant at least won a prize and that Matt Dentler had Paranoid Park as his #2 pick at Cannes (after Schnabel). If you haven't seen Mala Noche, make sure you do. Janus's theatrical re-release of Mala Noche makes us rethink indie film in the mid 1980s. If Paranoid Park is as good as most people say, it's hard to think of another indie filmmaker, who has six films to compete with the quality of Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, Elephant, Last Days, and Paranoid Park (which unfortunately I've yet to see). Korine is a real talent as well. If he had only shot the scene of Bunny Boy and the redneck cowboys, in my opinion, he'd still be great filmmaker.

[bill bellamy]

look here........Korine is pretty good. Donkey Boy sucked. Kids was great which he wrote. Gummo shocked everyone's world. If that were his only movie he'd be genuis. It's time for his next stage and he needs to get paid to finance his next wave of debauchery.