Mister Lonely

[samsong]

simple in the most dubious way.  some beautiful imagery/moments, the music is lovely, and that "moment" with herzog is pretty spectacular, but for the most part the film's unbearably flat and unnerving in its "innocence"--it seems to be more the result of retardation than a genuinely expressed outlook.  i will thank korine though for putting samantha morton and denis lavant in the same film.

[cinemanarchist]

I'm pretty sure Buckwheat washing The Pope made my brain explode. It did drag in places but overall it was nice to see something that didn't insult my intelligence during these lean summer months.

"The Pope stinks."

[MacGuffin]

There's a certain world-weariness about Harmony Korine as he presses firmly against the urinal. I introduce myself and tell him we'll have the interview out in the garden since the Soho Grand's lounge feels like a proofing oven. He straightens himself up, says, "Fine, man, whatever." The fact that I just caught America's most imaginative filmmaker in the lavatory carries with it sobering implications, which I might come back to later. Life for Korine had been a kind of giant toilet after Julien Donkey-boy came out in 1999. He had a slow-motion meltdown, spiritually moved away from filmmaking and traveled around Europe before ending up in Paris. And now he's back big time. His new film Mister Lonely, which he wrote with his brother Avi, is pure bliss: Fellini, Wim Wenders and Matthew Barney all come to mind. Yes, American cinema hasn't looked this strongly in a long time. Diego Luna plays a Michael Jackson for-hire impersonator who ekes out a living in Paris--a foreigner in a strange town who impersonates Michael Jackson, how ironic. In a strangely predictable way Michael meets a Marilyn impersonator (Samantha Morton) who takes him to a commune where folks of the same ilk are putting together their own variety show.

Korine's early opus (Kids, Gummo, Julien Donkey-boy) about folks living on the river's edge (the wrong one) were his cri de guerre. With Mister Lonely, Korine turns antithetical—repression is out. Although Diego Luna's character suffers from bouts of melancholy, the commune of impersonators he joins has a definite lust for life and a jones for showbiz. Michael Jackson (Luna) was the missing link; once he shows up, everyone works on putting a nightly show on for the town with a renewed sense of purpose. Korine talked with SG about his tribulations, his faith and his corruptible younger brother Avi...

Cedric Waslow: You totally disappeared after Julien Donkey-boy. What happened to you?

Harmony Korine: I went traveling and ended up in France after I burnt out all my other countries. I started falling apart, I wanted to live a life that was separate, I didn't want to have anything to do with movies, anymore. I ran out of money, I ran out of friends, and I ran out of hope.

CW:How long did you spend in France? Do you even speak French?

HK:[Smiles] No. I wasn't listening. I spent just under a year there. During that time I only left my apartment four times, I think.

CW:So the inspiration for Mister Lonely came in part from your experience there? How did you enlist your brother Avi's help in writing the screenplay?

HK:Yes, partly. Avi was living in Philadelphia in someone's attic. He was only eating chicken McNuggets and watching boxing matches. It'd been long since I had written anything and I figured I liked the stuff that he had written, especially the less pornographic stuff. So I asked him if he wanted to come down and do this with me. His only special condition was that I find him the special honey that had been discontinued from McDonalds. So I tracked down this farm and got a bunch, and he came down and we just sat in a room for three months and came up with the concept.

CW:Are you very close to your brother?

HK:We hadn't been so close physically because he's so much younger and I was out of the house a lot when he was growing up. But we have a lot in common--we share the same kind of humor, find the same characters interesting.

CW:So what was the dynamic like between you two?

HK:I had images and ideas and specific characters, and we started riffing, talking about different things, what about this idea, etc. Usually, if we'd both laugh at it, then it's good to keep. It took about a month of talking about it and writing our little notes, and then another month of actual writing.

CW:Are you very picky when it comes to the finished screenplay?

HK:I usually write just one draft. As soon as the script is finished, I'll reread it and clean up the dialogue a little. I don't know what a perfect script is. I don't ever spend too much time to get a script perfect, I just don't really care if it seems OK.

CW:There are two plots in Mister Lonely. The impersonators and the flying nuns. And although everything made sense to me, somehow, some people might have a hard time connecting the nuns to the others. What can you say to them?

HK:They're not there just randomly. The nuns represent a different way of saying, "Look at this estranged group of people." I felt like that even though the stories didn't intersect in a concrete way they spoke to the same idea, it was allegory showing how the characters paralleled each other. They were both groups of marginalized, displaced dreamers that were living outside of the system. And in a way the nuns have this hope that if you believe strongly enough in something you can survive. You can ride bicycles in the clouds and do tricks and land and survive.

CW:A little like these impersonators believed they could become the greatest stars the world has ever known!

HK:Right, just like that, just like these impersonators believed that you could be someone else. There's an emotional sense in there, but I never really cared about making perfect sense, I've always wanted to make movies that were nonsense.

CW:Could Diego Luna and Samantha Morton's characters (Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe, respectively) thrive in the real world?

HK:Well, all the characters are show people and they really come alive when they perform. Performance is everything. And dreamers that they are, they hope that the whole world will come to see the show.

CW:But they're in for a tough surprise...

HK:Right, reality always has a way of intruding on dreams and the truth of their situation becomes obvious. There they are, living in a remote commune in the Scottish Highlands. They are delusional but I think they had a beautiful dream, a pure dream and sometimes the purest dreams are the ones that get hurt the most.

CW:Upon seeing Werner Herzog in priest habit admonishing the laborer who cheats on his wife, I thought what an astonishing scene. You and Herzog have been friends for a while?

HK:Yes, right after Gummo came out I got a phone call from him. We have a good relationship.

CW:Do you believe in God?

HK:Belief is an important part of my life. I won't say too much about this, but I need to believe in something to get through the day. But that's my own thing.

CW:Do you believe in Agnes B, then?

HK:[Laughs] Well, I have a production company with Agnes B. She had been waiting for me to get my act together. When I was ready, I called her up and told her I had a script, let's go. That's where it came together.

CW:Agnes B. is the unofficial matriarch of the New York arts.

HK:Yes, she's great.

CW:Now that you live in Nashville, do you miss New York City?

HK:Not really, no. That's part of the past. My life in Nashville is great. Moving there was my saving grace. That and meeting my wife Rachel [she plays Little Red Riding Hood in the movie]. It's been terrific. When I get off the airplane my heartrate goes down, you know you're in the right place. I can just drive around in my car and dream up scenarios.

CW:You're not a prolific filmmaker. Are we going to have to wait a decade for your next movie?

HK:I hope to God it won't take me a decade until the next film. I've already written another one. My mind is in a better place. I won't be so precious about things. I'd like to make a movie by the end of the year.

[Alexandro]

This film is a big hit with a certain portion of the audience. I know this because I work at a video store and it's have been permanently loaned for a month and a half. I finally stole it to check it out by myself and it is impressive, although it does drags a little in the middle, and Diego Luna's performance might be the weakest in what is a very colorful cast of actors, characters and performances. Samantha Morton as usual, is brilliant. And really pretty much everyone else, with a special mention to James Fox who is hilarious...

The "innocence" of the film also bugged me a little, specially the character at the end and beggining who helps out Michael and tells him all that pretentious stuff about not knowing who he is, etc...I felt it wasn't necessary to hammer all that shit down on us...

The Herzog/Nuns storyline is fantastic, and that moment everyone's been mentioning, I think is one of the highlights of the film, appart from pretty much any scene with Samantha Morton. She has an astounding gift for making everything seem believable, honest and heartfelt, a tremendous actress really. I'm always in awe of her, to think of her body of work is just this uninterrupted line of great choices in every respect.

The very first shot of the film with the song really is a true graber, at least for me, I felt it was beautiful. There are not many films like these around so it's always a gift to get them. 2008 sucked balls and although this one is techically an 07 film, I would say is one of 08's best.

[Bethie]

I watched this recently as well and I was going to post, but was threatened that I better have something good to say before I updated a topic that was ..old. I decided that stating 'Korine is the little nutcase who could', wasn't worth it.  and yeah, ditto on the nuns/Herzog part

[Alexandro]

I watched this recently as well and I was going to post, but was threatened that I better have something good to say before I updated a topic that was ..old. I decided that stating 'Korine is the little nutcase who could', wasn't worth it.  and yeah, ditto on the nuns/Herzog part

yeah it's weird: "dont waste our precious time unless you really have something interesting to say, god forbid we have some new posts about movies"...that's what computers do...

[martinthewarrior]

I don't have any breathtaking analysis of the film, but I will say that it is hands down, my favorite comedy of last year. As a huge fan of Korine, especially when he's not completely jacking around, I felt like he'd finally channeled his completely unique sense of humor into a movie that could showcase it for people who might have been a little put off by some of his youthful diversions.

The "I love chickens" scene is in my top ten of all time. I laughed until my toes hurt.

[pete]

did you laugh throughout the movie?

[martinthewarrior]

I did. There were certainly moments where I wasn't in stitches, but I'd say every five minutes or so there was a bit that got me tickled.