On the surface, it might be easy to say and ask, "Sure, this is a fascinating conceit: a misfit island for middling celebrity impersonators, but is it a movie?" This question is at the heart of Korine's work. He's presenting us with the surreal and the too real, often at the same time; the human mind, most human minds, will seek to categorize it as a failure immediately upon delivery. It's purposeful cognitive dissonance, but it's so far from pointless.
Roger Ebert wrote of this movie...
The film doesn't work, and indeed seems to have no clear idea of what its job is, and yet (sigh) there is the temptation to forgive its trespasses simply because it is utterly, if pointlessly, original.I think "pointlessly original" might be favorite Ebertism/oxymoron that I've uncovered to date. Korine's work seeks to confront that which we can't understand. At one point the character impersonating The Pope steals a line: "do they not know their little arms are too short to box with God?" This from a phrase coined by the civil right's activist and writer James Weldon Johnson. The quote was turned into a popular Broadway musical by Vinnette Carroll; Patti Labelle starred.
It doesn't matter that "The Pope" shouted those words from high atop a tower to a bunch of men in hazmat suits rounding up a herd of sick goats for slaughter. It's a line you can absolutely interpret as being directed at the audience of Harmony Korine's movies. There is a short film within this film involving a drunken Werner Herzog as a priest, and a horde of literal flying nuns, and it doesn't intersect with the main plot in anyway. Your brain will want to connect these stories and there's certainly something there thematically, but that they never physically intersect is the true stroke of genius. Korine is a maximalist but he never overreaches.
This film is stuffed to the brim with humanity. There are moments of violence and cruelty and death but they're only here to offer balance. Diego Luna in the lead role of Michael Jackson is superb, as are Samantha Morton (Marilyn Monroe) and Denis Lavant (Charlie Chaplin). They never treat this material as a joke, as pointless fodder, absurdity for absurdity's sake. If this movie feels too goofy to move you, then I got nothin' for ya.
I want to close this review with a rather lengthy quote from Luna's Michael Jackson, toward the end, when he stops being Michael Jackson. He comes to terms with the reality of life and what he has to say resonates now more than ever. These words, Korine's words, are so simply put, and so beautiful. Their "job," as is the job of the film, is to invoke a feeling — in the most plain terms, directly from their meaning — and hope that in this feeling lies some humanity, truth...
There are plagues everywhere. There is sickness and disease that is everywhere. Everyone tried to hide from these things - the darkness and the shadows. It is just a matter of time till it finds you. I know that. I cannot outrun it. I can't hide from it. There is no where to go. It is my wish to embrace it, to be alone in the middle of the crowd. I know this is all an illusion, a dream. It must come to an end. Nothing too good lasts too long. I can see the hope in everyone's faces. I know they're all searching for something. They're all chasing a great dream. Each of them wants to better themselves. They're all looking for answers. What they don't realize is that have found it already. They have found it one another. And, as always, the world outside is waiting for us. Waiting patiently to take us away.
ｐａｒｔ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ＲＡＮＫＩＮＧ • ＨＡＲＭＯＮＹ • ＫＯＲＩＮＥ ｓｅｒｉｅｓ
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 450D - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 452 ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 450D - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 452 ⫸
Mister Lonely is a 2007 comedy film directed by Harmony Korine and co-written with his brother Avi Korine. The film features an ensemble cast of international actors, including Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, Werner Herzog, James Fox, Anita Pallenberg and Leos Carax. It was released on May 22, 2007.
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