Mister Lonely

First of all I'm already biased about this film. When I saw Gummo ,10 years ago, It blew my mind. I think its one of the best films ever made. Then there was A Crack Up at The Race Riots, a book that Harmony Korine wrote. It was just so unique and thought provoking. Putting forth taboo subjects and humorous anecdotes. Then Julien Donkey Boy came along with the same feeling but much more darker. I have been reading about the production of this movie for what 3 or 4 years now. Luckily I live in Japan, where its showing now.

So going into this film my expectations were really really high. And to be honest I was disappointed when I was watching it. But afterwards and a couple of days later, It all sunk in. I remember the first time I saw Gummo, I thought "What the fuck is this", but then it became the best movie I had ever seen.

Mister Lonely, is quite different from Gummo or Julien Donkey Boy. However if you read A Crack-up at the Race Riots you can see some connection. Anyway, we can see some maturity here in his work.

The is about these people who want to be something else than they are. During the film Michael Jackson narrates that we all are trying to better ourselves. He doesn’t want to feel like he’s just a part of the sheep herd. He wants to find his purpose in life.

In the beginning of the film Michael goes and performs at an old folks home. He screams “You can live forever!”

We are all human, we are all born from mothers and we all die like brothers. There are six billion people on this planet with billions more thoughts. We all lack something. We all feel the pain in some way or another.

A lot of people want to be famous. To feel like they are not a part of the sheep herd. Michael Jackson is just an imitation of Michael Jackson. But he gets to be famous in his mind for those moments he imitates Michael Jackson.

In this film all the famous celebrities like Diego Luna and Samantha Morton are playing impersonators of famous celebrities.

The other fake narrative that runs through is that of nuns in Brazil. One of the Nuns falls out of a plane during a food drop. We see her plummet from high in the sky all the way to the ground. However she manages to live. Werner Herzog plays the priest.

So Michael Jackson meets Marilyn to live on a commune of impersonators in Scotland. Sammy Davis Jr., Abraham Fucking LIncoln, The Queen, The pope, Little Red Riding Hood, Buckwheat, The Three Stooges, Shirley Temple, Madonna, Shirley Temple, and Charlie Chaplin live there. We see them tend to their sheep, ride horses, and ride tractors.

I don’t want to give it all away.

Theres a great scene where the stooges are killing all the sheep with shotguns. We don’t see the sheep get slaughtered. We can only imagine it, which I think is one of the great aspects of this film. In cinema we are so used to seeing everything without leaving anything to the imagination.

My other favorite part, so far, is when Charlie Chaplin leaves his wife in the sun to burn. “You let me burn!” she screams at him.

I have only seen this film once so far, but I can’t wait to see it again. The main reason why love Gummo, so much is that you can watch it out of order. The film is a collection of interesting charchters and great scenes. I think Mister Lonely is the same way, however it also functions as a traditional narrative, which I think is an advancement for Korine’s oeuvre.

Mr. Korine has really raised the bar. A lot of time has passed since Julien Donkey Boy, but I think its been worth the wait. I think this film destroys all other cinema of our present time. If you know any other better films please let me know. If you don’t agree with me, I’ll be happy to be a fool. Long live the old folks.

P.S. See the movie, and try to cop ANP quarterly issue with a fantastic interview with Harmony Korine by Aaron Rose and Ari Macropolis. And buy A Crack Up at the Race Riots, you won’t be disappointed unless of course you don’t like Tupac, Jessica Tandy, Tom Petty, and suicide notes