Korine

How can he be a wannabe if he's already successfully made several films?

I vote artist.

definitely an artist. i mean, really , what makes an artist? i guess it varies personally, but to me, it's to make something out of nothing (in a general sense) which is what he did (Gummo) and will continue to do. i have not seen Trash Humpers yet (pre-ordered: I don't live around the showings) but i'm looking forward to it. at first, i was a bit skeptical and thought "wow, harmony is really pushing his look here with the whole weird persona" but one day it completely hit me. the whole idea behind trash humpers is phenomenal. i mean, you take the concept in a literal sense and it's just a bunch of old people humping trash, but really it's beautiful. it's all one big symbol for American society, kind of summing it up. i guess i shouldn't speak so much about it before seeing it, but my hopes are high.

either way, he's my favorite film maker. i will ALWAYS vote Korine as an artist, one of the most beautiful minds to exist.

If you don't understand his films and his mentality of making them and releasing them then you shouldn't even be watching them.

A "hack", I'd argue, is someone like Takashi Miike -- who I like quite a few films by, but he's definitely not as important as some people made him out to be for a few years there. His best films are Izo and Dead or Alive 2: Birds, which was a ripoff of Kitano's Sonatine. In general, his best moments came from ideas from other directors, like Tsukamoto, Takeshi Kitano (the best filmmaker in the world and someone who genuinely has torn apart the fabric of cinema and made absolutely essential, brilliant, artist movies for 20 years but has next to no appreciation from ANYONE), Sogo Ishii, etc. He also doesn't really write his own movies or do anything, well, unique or noteworthy in any way. So, that's why he doesn't really have a following anymore. Though I do find a lot of his movies enjoyable, he's made, like, 80 in 10 years, but hasn't really contributed anything to the art of filmmaking. See, because hacks get popular quickly, then burn out just as quickly.

...On the other hand, Korine has only made 4 films in like 15 years, and still has a huge following. I'm not a huge fan of his (more of an admirer of certain scenes and some of his fearless editing), but I LOVE Julien Donkey Boy -- I think it's one of the most important and brilliant films, well, ever. Sure, there are elements of Mike Leigh's "naked", Dennis Hopper's "out of the blue", various early Fassbinder films, but mainly Godard's elliptical editing, "aimless" plotting, and characters who are charicatures who spew catchphrases and don't develop... but it's still quite a unique little film, especially one in a mainstream context (someone will argue it's not "mainstream", but I bought 4 copies for $3 at Big Lots recently, to give to friends, so it's definitely not completely underground). I think all of his films have unique little touches, even if they don't work as a whole, and I do believe he puts his heart and soul into his films, even when they don't really work. More importantly, he is clearly not making movies just for the money -- unlike the Miike example above, who has no artistic voice of his own and just films to make money -- hence why he hasn't been able to make many films. Even if I find that his films don't usually work as a whole, he clearly is making personal, inspiring, and often forward-thinking films -- this isn't something to take for granted, since no one's really able to do that anymore (unless you think mumblecore is the wave of the future...?!), again, in a somewhat mainstream context (hence why this board actually has, y'know, posts and stuff). I'd argue that nowadays, there are TONS of people making unique, artistic, highly personal no-budget films (Giuseppe Andrews until he retired, Ryan Trecartin immediately comes to mind, as do the films of Adam Cooley and James Fotopoulos). But back when Korine made Gummo, there weren't many people making FILMS like that -- aside from Damon Packard and his film "Reflections of Evil", a 4 hour epic that he handed 29000 free copies of to various people, who largely didn't care despite the film being THE BEST independent movie of all time -- ...so, yeah, Korine's definitely an artist, and quite a compelling one at that. Hopefully, with the ease to make a movie, and since Korine's quite established now, he can continue to make movies without worrying about things like "studios" and "funding" and "stars" (Chloe Sevigny).

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pre·ten·tious: characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

Harmony korine is for sure an artist. like any creative mind weather writer or director he will have some people not liking his ideas. i am a fan of most every film he has been part of


Rob Zombie is one of the greatest directors today