Review of Trash Humpers (2010) by Jonathan C — 28 Oct 2010

The films of Harmony Korine always fascinate me, even when they don't entertain or satisfy me. His work always focuses in on some repugnant underbelly of American culture, and his movies themselves often feel like the characters and situations that they display; gross, unhealthy, and wrong. His latest experiment, "Trash Humpers," is quite possibly the most demented and unsavory film he has made in a while, and one that will unwatchable to most. Viewers like myself, however, may not really be entertained by it, but in some sort of awe. For Korine has made a film that isn't so much a film as it is a series of unexplained and aggressive sequences of disturbing, disgusting, and redundant scenes featuring madness splattered across every inch of the frame, a movie that is as insane and pointless as its characters.

I was in awe of it for two reasons. One: itâ(TM)s just insane to watch, especially in its entirety. Two: Korine, despite his deliberate sloppiness and apparent disregard for conventional entertainment, is on to something. This movie isnâ(TM)t a statement; itâ(TM)s more like a state of mind. Recommending it to conventional viewers is completely foolish; if you havenâ(TM)t seen any of his other films and are easily disturbed or annoyed by a film, then don't bother. Stay away from this thing! But for me, I like to be challenged by a film, especially one thatâ(TM)s as abrasively weird and unusual as this, and one that savors itself as it does so.

A conventional review of such a film is impossible. "Trash Humpers" is something I cannot defend, but I feel like the movie doesnâ(TM)t want any defense. People who hate it will be right when they say itâ(TM)s terrible. People who love it or admire it will also be right when they point out that the movie works. It's in the strange zone of experimental movies that completely defies category and criticism. I got what Korine was trying to do pretty quickly, and that he does it through the entire 78 minutes makes the movie tiresome, but he has managed to find, perhaps for the most extreme case in his career, an intense and disturbing element that lasts through each moment. If a movie is not meant to be looked at in a conventional way, then I won't look at it in a conventional way. On its own terms, "Trash Humpers" is a powerful film that accomplishes its goals and freaks you out.

There is no plot here to speak of. The film follows a trio of people wearing rubber masks of elderly people, although it's unclear whether the film intends them to be actual old people, or just psychotics running around in old people masks. These are our "trash humpers" of the title. They live up to their name, not only humping trash cans and dumpsters with relish and glee but also apparently having sex with trees, and mimicking oral sex and masturbation with tree branches. They ride around on bicycles with baby dolls tied to the back, being dragged through mud and dirt. They run into lots of strange people passing by that seemed to have walked right out of Korineâ(TM)s cult classic "Gummo." They sing unbearably high pitched songs about death and the devil; they walk around late and night and peep through people's windows while making annoying and inescapable moans and screams. Every once in a while, they randomly, without remorse or thought, brutally murder somebody. Mainly they just like to fuck around with the garbage. And that's it.

The film is shot in the style of an old VHS tape, battered, scratched, ineptly recorded and used, making it sort of a "found footage" type of movie, a la "Blair Witch" and "Paranormal Activity." Unlike those movies, there is no attempt to shape the gimmick around a story or an arc. The film really does feel like the random tapings of a family of psychotics, an uncomfortable look at what people who are degrading and insane and disconnected do all day. Think of it as the home movies of the family from "Texas Chainsaw." With the shoddy quality of the picture, and the lead characters that are completely out of their minds, the film does feel like an intrusive look at the life and attitude of a modern day psychotic.

It doesn't matter that the film doesn't have a plot, or characters that resonate or connect with the audience. None of that is important. What is important is that this movie, like most of Korine's work, delves into the sticky and horrifying lifestyle of what may be going on in the house next to you, in the very town you live in. There are people in the world that are this bat shit crazy, and I imagine that their home movies would probably look a lot like this. These people aren't documenting themselves, or documenting the world around them. They're simply acting out their insanity on camera, and we're watching.

So the film itself interested me, it disturbed me, sometimes it bored me, other times it made me laugh. I have to admit, overall the film impressed me with the fact that it jumped into such an ugly world and savored it. In some moments, with this gang of adults running around their yards and screaming and acting like children with a low grade camera, I was reminded of "Jackass," which plays on a not too distant form of "threshold entertainment." I laughed at the sheer stupidity or crudeness of some of the behavior, or some of the shots of these guys just standing in the middle of a parking lot humping the hell out of a dumpster. Other times in the movie, I wanted to throw the TV out of the window, with all the mumbling and screaming and madness just going on and onâ¦. Then, there were moments I was legitimately disturbed, either watching them wrap a plastic bag around a guy's neck and suffocate him at the dinner table or breaking into somebody's house to kidnap a real baby. Korine resists moments of tenderness or connection; these people aren't sympathetic even though they could be presented as such. There is a moment at the end, watching the old masked woman holder her kidnapped baby and singing, that is almost touching, but the feeling of dread and shock is too thick.

Although it has moments of dark comedy and makes nifty (if at times, even visually beautiful) usage of its old VHS look, itâ(TM)s sometimes a chore to sit through, with the trash humpers just screaming and laughing and yelling ridiculous things over and over again. It's all part of the show though. Korine is daring you to keep watching, trying to find whatever he can to unbalance the viewer. In being annoying and abrasive, the film compliments its shocking or disgusting elements well. This movie is meant to be a challenge, meant to confuse, irritate, annoy, disgust, offend, etc.

So is it wrong that I don't find that to be a bad thing? Each movie has its own purpose, its own feeling, its own world and rules and ideas. "Trash Humpers" is one of those movies that only a few people will like, because these are the people who like to be challenged, or like to be shown something they've never seen or thought about before, regardless of its moral center or entertainment value. I'm one of those people. It's as if Harmony Korine is a David Lynch that never grew up; Lynch at least structures his films to where they appear to be stories, at least for a while. Korine doesnâ(TM)t care about the stories, he cares about the feeling, the reaction, and the implications of what you see. I thought "Trash Humpers" was a successful film, even an accomplished and sometimes visionary one, for what it was. It's just that what it is isn't very pretty. Film, and art itself, doesn't have to be pretty. This is why I think "Trash Humpers" works, and this is why I like it.