Gummo is not an average film. It is no film with a solid story-line either. Gummo plays in Xenia, Ohio where a tornado struck several years ago and the town people never really got over it. The film is a collection of loose scenes containing people and their (sometimes strange) behavior.
Korine observes his cast, which mostly consists of amateurs. He doesn't judge them or ridicules them - which is often easy to do, but Korine loves his characters.
Most of the film is shot with digital hand-held camera, which provides the film with a documentary-style look and sometimes I had to ask myself if I wasn't watching a documentary, especially at the moments when some of the characters seem to talk straight into the camera.
The brilliance of Korine really comes onto the screen near the end, the sequence with Roy Orbison's 'Cryin'' on the soundtrack. That's - in my opinion - the best part of the film and it states the message of the film: In the end, it will stay the same. Nothing changes.
Like a fellow-commenter said: "It's a film to see with an open mind."
Korine observes his cast, which mostly consists of amateurs. He doesn't judge them or ridicules them - which is often easy to do, but Korine loves his characters.
Most of the film is shot with digital hand-held camera, which provides the film with a documentary-style look and sometimes I had to ask myself if I wasn't watching a documentary, especially at the moments when some of the characters seem to talk straight into the camera.
The brilliance of Korine really comes onto the screen near the end, the sequence with Roy Orbison's 'Cryin'' on the soundtrack. That's - in my opinion - the best part of the film and it states the message of the film: In the end, it will stay the same. Nothing changes.
Like a fellow-commenter said: "It's a film to see with an open mind."