David Blaine: Above the Below

MOVIE #1,427 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 03.08.24 I was a bit confused initially whether or not this was a true Harmony Korine-directed picture, as he’s co-credited alongside someone named Steve Smith. At first, I thought I could see where the Korine content comes in and where it leaves. The Michael Jackson impersonator for example. Maybe some of the interview segments were done by the other director, but things definitely start to blur and by the end, when we see Harmony on screen briefly. So I think it’s safe to assume this is part of the auteur’s canon (check out my Director Focus on his work here). This feels like a more ‘normal’ TV documentary that’s been chopped and screwed, if that makes sense.

I've never really been a “David Blaine fan” but watching this and reading a bit about him, I must admit that I find him fascinating. He's clearly a bullshit artist, to some degree, but there's a self-awareness I detect that makes his whole deal more interesting. Like this voice-over is so poetic and delivered so earnestly, it really hits the sweet spot for me of not being able to decipher the true intentions…


But this stunt — locking himself inside a transparent plexiglass box on the south bank of the Thames in London while only ingesting water for six weeks — is real and the emotional response feels genuine despite the glaring performative nature.

Lastly, I like what Korine brings to the table in the documentary format and, like his mentor Herzog, I wish he'd dabble in this genre more often.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
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In perhaps his most controversial endurance feat to date, David Blaine began a 44-day fast on September 5, 2003, sealed inside a transparent plexiglas case suspended 30 feet in the air on the bank of the river thames in London. He went without any food or nutrients for the duration of the stunt, surviving on just 4.5 liters of water per day. It was released on December 13, 2003.