Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

Directed by Harmony Korine. Starring Ewen Bremner, Chloë Sevigny, Werner Herzog, Evan Neumann, Chrissy Kobylak, Joyce Korine. [R]

Experimental (and largely improvisational) film focused on an untreated schizophrenic (Bremner) and his odd, dysfunctional family—pregnant and infantile sister Sevigny, domineering and abusive father Herzog, etc. Julien murders a child because of turtles in the opening scene, steals and cradles a miscarried fetus at the end, and in between, it’s no pleasure cruise. Its grainy, out-of-focus aesthetic—shot on tape and transferred/blown up multiple times onto different film gauges—wouldn’t be a problem if real effort was made to explore schizophrenia and draw honest emotions out of these strange situations and stranger characters. There are vignettes that earn quiet fascination or grab you by the collar, but these fleeting moments are surrounded by artificial and inconsequential ones. Ultimately too self-indulgent, and Harmony Korine continues to subscribe to the belief that shock value is synonymous with artistic growth. First American film produced under the rules of the avant-garde Dogme 95 movement.

40/100