The three sisters spend time searching for their cat "Foot Foot" (I was reminded of The Shaggs' song My Pal Foot Foot), handing out flyers and asking people for help in a supermarket car park. Chloe Sevigny as Dot and her two sisters demonstrate kindness and a close connection within what feels like a bitter world - they spend most of their time together, chatting away, painting toes, playing around. Saying this, I don't think everyone in Gummo is terrible. When thinking of decay within Gummo, there's the decay of thought (two bald brothers fight each other, not holding back in their punches, fighting with a smile) the decay of morals (a home video shows a young man bragging about setting cats alight so they don't come back around, and a woman claims to have put a cat in the microwave, watching it melt - a home video which devolves into racial slurs) and even literal decay as dead cats really are a major focus within Gummo - we're not there with these characters, but God we can certainly imagine the smell. There's little to nothing here: teens sell dead cats to the local convenience store manager who sells the meat to restaurants the little money earnt is used on milkshakes and glue people get rat-assed drunk and, out of sheer boredom, wrestle a chair - Gummo is a grubby, grimy film filled with bug bites, smashed glass and the homes of hoarders. Gummo's version of Xenia Ohio is a place lacking in aspirations, prospects and ambitions. It's like Gummo aims to capture that essence of decay from the get-go: a tornado tears through Xenia, Ohio and leaves a path of dead in its wake. It's a disturbing film that aims for sensory overload - a film that's meant to induce anxiety and panic, using a mix of haunting voice-overs, scuzzy VHS home movie footage, a soundtrack of black metal, dark ambient and ironically-used pop classics. ![]() I can certainly admire it (although I don't think I'm going to want to re-watch it any time soon - I hadn't felt so anxious watching a film in so long, Gummo truly got under my skin). I've grown quite fond of Harmony Korine's later films and I suppose it felt right now to revisit Gummo with a bit more of an idea of what his films can be like.Īfter seeing Gummo now, I can't say I really like it much, but I don't think it's meant to be liked. ![]() I recently sat down to watch Harmony Korine's Gummo which I had previously struggled to finish before, and I always found it a little odd how this film has such a strong dedicated following despite not having been in print for a long time.
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