Sunday, January 12, 2014

Trash Humpers (USA, 2009)







Nine Things About Trash Humpers

1. This was directed by Harmony Korine, and is sort of a companion piece to his first film, "Gummo". I suspect this movie was made for people who thought "Gummo" was too mainstream.

2. Part performance art, part episode of "Jackass", It's about a small group of men and women (that wear rubber masks of old people) running amok in a town.

3. The title of the film is to be taken literally. They really do hump trash. And streetlights. And trees. Sometimes they perform oral sex on trees.

4. They also break stuff, mutilate dolls, and visit friends. Sometimes they torture and kill their friends.

5. That's the whole movie. They do this for 80 minutes. Then it's over. There is no plot, and very little actual dialog. Korine and his cast pretty much made it all up as they went along.

6. You know that scene in "Dumb and Dumber" when Lloyd makes The Most Annoying Sound in the World? Well, one of these characters laughs like that throughout the entire movie.

7. This is a portrayal of repulsive, anarchic outsiders reveling in their inability to relate to anyone "normal". Their brief encounters with real people are icky and awkward. I think perhaps Korine was commenting on contemporary America, and our own arrogant, disturbed schizophrenia with regard to the rest of the world.

8. He filmed it on old used VHS tape. This was an interesting choice in the age of HD video. It gives the film a much grungier, unsettling look.

9. Korine is brilliant at evoking emotions that have no names - a sort of beautiful, nervous, sick feeling. And there was a little of that in this movie. Unfortunately, the biggest feeling I got out of it was boredom.




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