Review of Gummo (1997) by Victoria N — 28 Feb 2015

I have never watched a film that has left me as mentally and emotionally disturbed as much as Gummo did. This has to be one of the most unusually concepted films I have ever watched. For me, it's one of those rare films that simply gets everything wrong. Production, Writing, Scenery: it's all wrong. I do credit the film for tackling with very adult and unsettling situations since most people decide to laugh at these issues and just suspect them as a stupid yet childish mistake , however the way that the film decides to deal with them results in an uncomfortable and almost dreadful sight, for all the wrong reasons.

So the story is about a young boy named Solomon , who had to suffer with devastation after his hometown of Xenia, Ohio was hit by a heartbreaking hurricane. It focuses on 3 main characters: Bunny Boy, Solomon and Tummler. Then the rest of this film talks about how these boys do certain things to help time pass by like huffing glue, making out with teenage girls, getting involved with child molesters and committing signs of animal cruelty to cats. So basically, they go through the processes of growing up and understanding the meaning of grown up life.

Like I said before, I was very impressed by the fact that the film incorporates different characteristics of grown up people like getting pregnant andhaving true affection for someone. Also it takes notice of certain syndromes like Asbergers and Down Syndrome. Having friends who are diagnosed with these syndromes, I felt that there should be a film where things like this are maturely discussed. I felt betrayed by the way that the film portrayed such issues, as if it were to say that people who suffer with these kind of disorders are just messed up. I didn't like the childish tone and instead of the film being moving, it scared me and gave an unsettling tone throughout. If there were 1 thing that I thought was averagely good was the actor who played Solomon: he was pretty much the only person in the film that shows raw devastation and emotion. The rest of the film however is highly mediocre and bland.