GUMMO is the tightest, most consistent, and honest portrayal of youth's quest for love in a society that has forsaken them ever made. Forget the comedy, forget the outstanding photography, forget the heart stopping art direction. This movie is about the little people forgotten between the cracks who seek acceptance amid overwhelming obstacles of hatred, crime, poverty, disease, and twists of fate that leave them alone and groping for comfort. Almost every character is screaming out for love in one way or another, however dysfunctional their lives may be. All of these issues are real - even if exaggerated in the film - and there are thousands of kids out there who in their own beautiful way are trying to live their lives despite the cruelty of a world that will just crap on them. The next time you watch this film, look for the tenderness between the mayhem...

Set in Xenia, Ohio, Gummo feels like a deliberate riposte to Hollywood by its creator, Harmony Korine, whose penchant for subversion was already evident in his screen writing debut for Larry Clark's Kids (1995). Eschewing linear narrative, Korine explores, through the use of vignettes and bizarre episodes, the cat-killing escapades of its two protagonists and weaves this quest around a set of unrelated but bizarre events taking place in Xenia. There is no sense of a story, only a mood, and that mood fluctuates wildly from revulsion to surprise. By giving voice to those marginalized from society, Korine paints a startling portrait of landlocked America, one at odds with the Hollywood cliché of its inhabitants. There are many unforgettable scenes and yet it's not an enjoyable film, but it challenges, provokes and pushes the margins - and that in itself is worthy.

Years after a tornado has wiped out much of their small town in Ohio, leaving behind nothing but memories and decay, a group of young and old characters react in different ways to the boredom and vacuousness that has settled in around them. The kids torture and sell cats, lift weights, and listen to death metal music, while the addle-pated adults seem to have killed off all their brains cells from one substance or another. Made for just over a million dollars, writer-director Harmony Korine's independent film is preconceived to shock with its depravity. To Korine's credit, the stultified atmosphere of the piece is arresting, the cinematography is scarily good, and--though the amateur acting is sometimes facile--the foul, stunted vocabulary and heartless aimlessness of the characters seems pretty truthful. Chloë Sevigny has a small part (and also designed the costumes!) playing a platinum blonde flirting with a skinny, pasty jock who tells her he has ADD; when Korine relaxes a little bit and just engages in their talk (or in sibling roughhousing, or jumping around on the bed to Buddy Holly's "Everyday"),"Gummo" manages to work a bit of primitive magic. However, the main objective (as I can tell) is to show the bestiality which arises in human beings who have nothing else to do but lash out. The anger and betrayal these kids feel isn't necessarily addressed verbally (they seem too uneducated to process a genuine thought or articulate their emotions),but it is visualized for us, sometimes graphically. Viewers can argue endlessly whether or not this depiction of human waste is Art...whether or not it is exploitation, common huckstering, completely dishonest, or enlightening. I certainly can see an askew sense of talent (visual talent, anyway) hovering around the movie's edges, but not much entertainment value. If apathy and abject indifference in our society is really this bad, then there's no hope for any of us. The lunatics are running the asylum. * from ****