I have nobody for my own
I am so lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely
Wish I had someone to call
on the phone
Last Friday I caught the opening of Harmony Korine's latest movie, Mister Lonely, at the IFC Center. The film, the first from Korine in a number of years, centers around a down-on-his-luck Michael Jackson impersonator eking out a living on the streets of Paris. One afternoon, while performing at an old folks' home, Jackson (played by Diego Luna, who starred opposite Gabriel Garcia Bernal in Y Tu Mama Tambien) is visited by a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. "Marilyn," delicately portrayed by Samantha Morton, urges "Michael" to move to a commune, comprised entirely of celebrity impersonators, located in the Scottish highlands. There, she insists, the inhabitants are free to be themselves, and the path to youth will exist for eternity. The irony, of course, is that the characters, under their own volition, exist as a product of others' creative imaginations; as a result, their identities are stripped and entirely subsumed by the musicians and actors whose traits they try so desperately to perfect. Mimicking celebrity, it seems, has its price.
Elsewhere, in the rain forests of Panama, a German priest, smartly acted by Warner Herzog, oversees a group of nuns--flying nuns no less--who are able to escape death because they fervently believe that their faith is strong enough to carry them to safety. This seemingly unrelated narrative thread adds little to the film's overall theme--anything is possible if you believe in yourself--since it succumbs, at one end, to cynicism; at the other end, to pure sap. I'm not sure if Korine was trying to comment on the nature of religion or human fallibility, but it's hard to come up with a reason for why he chose to address these themes at such an angle.
To be fair, the film has some funny--no, brutally funny--moments, but I was expecting an effort with a lot more edge from the artist who wrote the screenplay to Kids, and who directed Gummo, a disturbing look at Midwestern disillusionment. (Both films are not for those who deplore violence, and who also happen to like domesticated animals.) It is this humor, at times dark yet playful, that is a fixture in Korine's work, and which prevents Mister Lonely, already so strangely close to a conventional Hollywood offering, from becoming a complete loss.
It's always disappointing when the best thing about a movie is its soundtrack, and so it goes: J. Spaceman (of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized) and Sun City Girls have written terribly effective mood pieces for a film that, given its focus, rises and falls with the characters' attempts at redemption. My personal favorite is Sun City Girls' "Circus Theme," which reminds me a great deal of Firewater's "El Borracho."
So, on a scale of one to four graduate film students, I give Mister Lonely a rating of two.
Links:
Trailer--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ufN1RxFu-4
Review--http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/movies/02lone.html?scp=2&sq=mister+lonely&st=nyt
[D | R]
Elsewhere, in the rain forests of Panama, a German priest, smartly acted by Warner Herzog, oversees a group of nuns--flying nuns no less--who are able to escape death because they fervently believe that their faith is strong enough to carry them to safety. This seemingly unrelated narrative thread adds little to the film's overall theme--anything is possible if you believe in yourself--since it succumbs, at one end, to cynicism; at the other end, to pure sap. I'm not sure if Korine was trying to comment on the nature of religion or human fallibility, but it's hard to come up with a reason for why he chose to address these themes at such an angle.
To be fair, the film has some funny--no, brutally funny--moments, but I was expecting an effort with a lot more edge from the artist who wrote the screenplay to Kids, and who directed Gummo, a disturbing look at Midwestern disillusionment. (Both films are not for those who deplore violence, and who also happen to like domesticated animals.) It is this humor, at times dark yet playful, that is a fixture in Korine's work, and which prevents Mister Lonely, already so strangely close to a conventional Hollywood offering, from becoming a complete loss.
It's always disappointing when the best thing about a movie is its soundtrack, and so it goes: J. Spaceman (of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized) and Sun City Girls have written terribly effective mood pieces for a film that, given its focus, rises and falls with the characters' attempts at redemption. My personal favorite is Sun City Girls' "Circus Theme," which reminds me a great deal of Firewater's "El Borracho."
So, on a scale of one to four graduate film students, I give Mister Lonely a rating of two.
Links:
Trailer--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ufN1RxFu-4
Review--http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/movies/02lone.html?scp=2&sq=mister+lonely&st=nyt
[D | R]
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