Review of Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) by Adrianne H — 25 Sep 2009

Harmony Korine's 2nd film as director finds a mashed together collection of images based on a man named Julien (Ewen Bremner, "The Rundown") suffering from severe schizophrenia. He lives at home with his abusive (and just as crazy) father, played by the great Werner Herzog, his athlete brother (Evan Neumann) and his pregnant sister (Chloe Sevigny "Kids"). It's merely a mish-mash bouncing from scene to scene showing Julien's everyday life.

Harmony Korine has never really straightforward. His directorial debut "Gummo" was equally as odd focusing on paint sniffing teenagers living in a town rampaged in the aftermath of a tornado. Here he shoots with no budget, using only natural settings, per the rules of the Dogma 95' film submission guidelines, for which this film was a part of.

It moves from the surreal, to the comedic, to the disturbing. Within the first few minutes Julien's already smashed a child's head open with a rock after being told he can't get a turtle from the pond. He screams and talks to himself in bathtubs and on the street asking questions like if anyone knows where his family tree is located. The unaware pedestrians having no hint he's an actor secretly being filmed quickly hurry off in opposite directions.

Werner Herzog as the father portrays a slightly differant personality, though apparently still also suffering from a form of schizophrenia. He babbles to himself about Hitler while naked and wearing a gas mask. Attempts to do handstands while trying to pick up a cigarette with his teeth, and berates Julien into battling his brother, an amateur wrestler, become enraged when Julien think's it's WWF style and sports a bra and panties then begs his brother to love him. I'm not sure if that's hinting at incest or not, as on the other hand Chloe Sevigny as their sister Pearl is about 9 months pregnant with her brother's child. It ain't gonna be for everyone.

Korine also wrote the script for the film "Kids" which most people are aware of. Behind the camera he's opted on less straight forward stories and more of snippets of daily life. He'd follow this film by penning "Ken Park", the infamous Larry Clark film (director of "Kids") that to this day is banned in the U.S. due to it's graphic and real sex, mostly involving teens. He spent another few years trying to film a movie of him approaching strangers and getting his ass kicked on film. As could be expected it didn't end up as a film, but as an extended hospital stay.

The film drags in many of it's scenes, only some of which are entertaining. One such scene involves Julien with his friends at the mental hospital, featuring an albino black man freestyling "I'm a black albino, straight from Alabama". Yes, freestylin black albinos, crazy dad's talking about Adolf Hitler eating his mother's titties, a pregnant incestuous sister, and a schizophrenic lead, based upon Korine's actual uncle. A tad on the boring side, but if you can stomach it, it's got it's place in the culture of arthouse & independent cinema.