Julien Donkey-Boy

As people see things, things see us. This extremely disturbing film about a man/boy with schizophrenia struggling through life with his twisted and mentally abusive dad, his sister who is pregnant with his baby, and his abused brother, is terrifyingly weird. With a film in which a boy is brutally smashed in the head with a stone and choked to death, a nun masturbates on the floor, and a armless man plays the drums, it is completely obvious that this film will only appeal to certain people. This film is freakish, but not in as good a way as GUMMO was. With all this being said, while the film was a hellish and emotional picture that is not for the mainstream(to say the least), I would never ever want to really see it again. This was just too much. It made me feel unclean in a way much deeper tan GUMMO. I felt my mind was permanently warped. I never want to even think about this film ever again. Thinking about it makes me feel nauseous. The images and the characters and the actions of them have gotten to me and Of course, this was probably Harmony Korine's intention. Many viewers won't feel the images they are seeing are necessary to for the to see. It is kind of a freak show in a way. It isn't so much the content that is bad. There are many events in the film that just feel wrong. Take for instance the scene where Julien attempts to sell skating shoes he made. He attempts to sell them to a boy who does not listen to what he has to say about his purportedly useless invention and instead swears and yells at him, telling him in exaggerated form that the shoes will kill people and that he wouldn't pay any money for them. The scene has no purpose other than to seemingly be insulting and depressing to the viewer who has already had their fair share of depressing events throughout the film. And yet it is done in such a way that is very lifelike and very realistic in terms of how the scene is constructed, but it seems so weird to want to film this sort of behavior. It has also been well known that for this film project, Harmony recorded real people's reactions of some of the strange behavior with hidden cameras. This adds genuine realism to the film along with the nasty stuff, as if it didn't have enough. It's a tough film to sit through. I think it's a good film, but I don't recommend it for fear that people will think I'm a sicko for thinking they will like it.

Harmony Korine's Julien Donkey-Boy, is nothing less than real filmic art. It chronicles a day or so in the life of Julien, a teenage schizophrenic, and the other family members he lives with: his sister, his frustrated and abusive father, played nicely by Werner Herzog, (of all people), his younger brother, and his grandmother.

The effect is like watching Leave it to Beaver on acid--a haunting picture of a family paralyzed by their own dysfunctionality, so pervasive it is that it virtually crushes any hope of what most of us would call a "normal" life. The real tragedy is knowing that we are merely glimpsing a fictional account of what many real families with similar situations have to endure. The film isn't a success solely due to its effectively disturbing chronicle of a mentally ill teen, but rather, HOW it chronicles the life of this character. Korine is a master of using film to communicate story and messages, specifically through the use of editing, cinematography and visual effects. This is amazing, since at only 27, Korine has more visual ownership of the medium than do most directors with twice his experience.

Yet, Korine's movies are not popular. Most people wouldn't have a clue as to what's going on in them. This is because Korine uses visual symbols and other filmic elements to reveal the plot and character development. And he does this masterfully. For example, in one scene, we see the images as if on a videophone, frame-by-frame, with erratic cuts in the action. Yet, the sound flows as normal. Korine uses this technique to symbolize the main character's fragmented view of the world -- a view that is dramatically distorted from our own. This is brilliant filmmaking -- an example of "show, don't tell" yet through use of film form rather than character action.

Indelibly, it is Korine's unconventional film style, of which a good deal looks experimental, yet all of which is handled expertly, that will also keep him at the fringes of the film world, barring him the popularity he deserves. This is too bad since he brings as much to the art of independent film as Scorcese does to the Hollywood film. Yet Korine will never have the accessibility of the other.

In this film, Korine reveals the character of Julien not only through his actions, but via his reactions to those around him and to his environment. This is a hard task for a filmmaker to achieve since those who don't know the particular "reason" for a scene or for its purpose, will be lost. The film demands an aggressive viewer, one who wants to share the boldness of the director's vision, while deciphering it through his or her own knowledge of film conventions and prior knowledge.

Julien Donkey-Boy is not as emotionally powerful as Korine's previous film, Gummo, yet it is just as important in what it has to say about film as a medium of communication, and, about the people who are living at the margins of society.

Much is made of the fact that this is the first American film to be certified by the strictly realist Danish Dogma group. But unlike Celebration or Breaking the Waves, this film is a mess. It centers on a schizophrenic young man in Queens. The movie consists of disjointed scenes. Eventually, a plot develops when Julien's pregnant sister played by Chloe Sevigny has a miscarriage, and Julien steals the dead baby from the hospital, takes it home, and loves it. Until those scenes, the movie just goes from one place to another, occasionally engendering giggles, but not providing anything to grab hold of. Ewen Bremner, memorable in Mojo, gets totally under the skin of Julien, but total immersion by an actor in the role of a disconnected person does not make for a watchable movie.

I will say that this film is Art at the risk of having raw vegetables thrown at me. It is not "a movie", as in "Hey, Mary, let's go down to the multiplex and catch Julien Donkey-Boy." No. I have the mixed pleasure of understanding this film's subject matter as a clinician. The film conveyed, in my educated opinion, a sensual experience of being very close to the dysfunction it displays. What may seem like unsophisticated art school techniques with sound and image to the casual viewer rang absolutely affectively true to me, as a person who has worked in locked units of state mental hospitals with these families. As entertainment, the film is terrible, as it should be. I would not advise buying an extra large popcorn. It is disturbing and enlightening. Whether or not it belongs in a theater, museum or a classroom is probably debatable. Werner Herzog was brilliant. Ewen Bremner blew me away. Bremner's acting range is amazing. I look forward to seeing him some day in a "regular guy" role.

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.