Venice Film Festival 2023: the mercurial talent of Harmony Korine, ahead of ‘Aggro Dr1ft’ premiere

But why is Harmony Korine such a polarizing figure? He’s loved by art-house critics and yet any attempt at a “mainstream” film has seen audiences either puzzled, or repulsed; two feelings that many of Korine’s works manage to evoke from the viewer. “Spring Breakers,” for example, saw a number of former Disney Channel actresses adorn bikinis, and hook up with James Franco’s grill-wearing antagonist in what was perhaps Korine subjugating the notion of the “wholesome, all-American girl.”

But long-time observers of Korine’s work know that this has always been a dynamic he has played with, even before becoming a director himself. Linking up with Larry Clark, a director known for focusing on the darker elements of “youth culture”, he first garnered attention as the screenwriter for the controversial 1995 coming-of-age drama “Kids.” 

The film encapsulated the day in the life of a group of hedonistic kids, engaging in skateboarding, drug use, underage drinking and sex - all topics that a still slightly puritanical US public was not ready to see on screen, creating a moral panic in the process. In the art-house-loving European cinema scene though, Clark and Korine were regarded as incredible storytellers, with the film nominated for the 1995 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Empowered that there was an audience for his thematic choices in his movies, Korine decided to move from screenwriting to directing, making his celebrated directorial debut with the experimental film “Gummo,” released in 1997. Once more looking at disenchanted young people, this time residing in the tornado-hit town of Xenia, Ohio, “Gummo” was popular with critics, but again the transgressive nature of some of the scenes from the film, in particular one regarding animal cruelty, was unpalatable for a mainstream audience.

Nonetheless, “Gummo” is regarded as one of Korine’s definitive works and an important film in the art-house circuit. Once more emboldened by the idea there is an audience for his kind of filmmaking, Korine then released “Julien Donkey-Boy” in 1999 which saw Scottish actor Ewen Bremner take on the titular role - a man with schizophrenia, living with a dysfunctional family.

The “enfant terrible” of independent film

It was around the filming of “Julien Donkey-Boy” that details of Korine’s “erratic” behaviour led to him being considered an “enfant terrible” of the independent film scene. It took twenty years until the reasons the director was banned from appearing on David Letterman’s late-night talk shows when the host was quizzed by James Franco about the reasons why.

Letterman’s explanation he gave was: “I went upstairs to greet Meryl Streep and welcome her to the show, and I knock on the door … and she was not in there. And I looked around, and she was not in there, and I found Harmony going through her purse. True story. And so I said: 'That's it, put her things back in her bag and then get out.’”

Letterman did tell Franco in the same interview that since going to rehab ten years earlier, “Harmony is a very sane guy now, a great artist and great person to work with, but I think he had a period where he was going a little off the rails, so maybe he was on something that night."

That period of Korine’s life, where he was an eccentric, almost problematic interview guest and at the height of his mercurial ways, was a time and place that the director himself calls a  "crazy time. I felt pretty debased and lost," he told The Guardian in 2008. "I became like a tramp. I wasn't delusional. I didn't think I was going to be OK. I thought: 'This might be the end.' I'd read enough books. I knew where this story ended. The story finishes itself."

“Trash Humpers,” “Spring Breakers” and “The Beach Bum”

Korine returned to the more experimental nature of his works after finding the production of “Mister Lonely” became more of a bureaucratic process rather than the “cinema verite” that he became more enamoured with after experimenting with the Dogme 95 manifesto earlier in his career.

“Trash Humpers” was a return to Korine’s fast-paced and immediate projects that embraced spontaneity. The idea was influenced by memories of elderly peeping toms he knew as a teenager and his interest in the analogue aesthetics of VHS tapes from his childhood along with walks he would take late at night and noticing rubbish bins beaten in but resembling human forms. 

Korine aimed for spontaneity and immediacy, moving away from the bureaucracy he faced with his previous film "Mister Lonely." The film was shot in a couple of weeks, with performers portraying ‘Trash Humpers’ documenting their activities at night, capturing raw moments and true feelings rather than traditional scenes or aesthetics. The title of the film was deliberately chosen to reflect the literal nature of the film's content, and Korine emphasized that he didn't want to deceive the audience. 

He views the film as an ode to vandalism and sees creative beauty in the characters' mayhem and destruction with critics describing "Trash Humpers" as an elaborate portrait of the American landscape, with scenes shot in park garages, alleyways, and illuminated lamp posts that represent America to Korine.

Korine would find his biggest success though in the film “Spring Breakers,” released in 2012 and starring James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine. Gomez, Hudgens, Benson and Korine portray four college-aged girls who go on spring break in St. Petersburg, Florida and meet an eccentric local drug dealer (Franco) who helps them in a time of desperation, and their eventual descent into a world of drugs, crime, and violence. 

The film made $31.7 million USD against a $5 million USD budget and landed in sixth position on the US Box Office chart upon its release and was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival and has been viewed as Korine’s most “accessible” film to date - despite the subject matter.

Korine tried to recapture that box office success with “The Beach Bum”, the 2019 American stoner comedy film written and directed by Harmony Korine and starring Matthew McConaughey, Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Jimmy Buffett, Zac Efron, Martin Lawrence, and Jonah Hill. The plot follows the adventures of stoner poet Moondog (McConaughey) in and around the Florida Keys as he tries to finish his new novel and fight for the respect of his daughter and his share of his wife's estate after she dies in a car accident.

“The Beach Bum” was released alongside Dumbo and Unplanned, and was projected to gross $2–4 million from 1,100 theaters in its opening weekend and ended up debuting to just $1.8 million, the lowest wide opening of McConaughey's career.

Works with Travis Scott: “Circus Maximus” and “Aggro Dr1ft”

Korine’s return to film recently has seen him collaborate with hip-hop artist Travis Scott on two projects; one of Scott’s and one of Korine’s. Harmony was one of a number of guest contributors for Scott’s short film to accompany his new album “Utopia” in the form of “Circus Maximus” which also saw the director working once again with A24 (the production company that he worked with for “Spring Breakers.”)

But Scott has repaid Korine’s involvement with that film by featuring in his first feature film since “The Beach Bum.” In the (very brief) synopsis for “Aggro Dr1ft,” Mubi writes that it is a “spellbinding infrared photography conjures a hallucinatory portrait of a haunted assassin (Jordi Mollà).” So a welcome return to Venice for not only Harmony Korine but for his experimental works to boot.

When will “Aggro Dr1ft” premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival?

Harmony Korine’s new film will have its premiere at the festival on September 1 2023 at 7:30pm at the Sala Perla. For additional screening times, including public screenings, you can check out the dedicated page on the Venice International Film Festival website.