Trash Humpers

Three little devils jumped over a wall...or so one of the characters sings constantly throughout the film, seemingly in lieu of the ability to express her reaction to events taking place around her. The three devils of the movie--or at least the three utter utter FREAKS--travel about randomly smashing stuff up, masturbating, humping stuff, and bumping into other random freaks they meet here and there. It's best if the people they meet entertain them. Smut works best of all. The three freaks giggle and chuckle and sing the three little devils song at any bit of smut or sexual talk or wanton violence that amuses them. The film is peppered with scenes of the depraved trio humping things: trees, walls, fences...trash cans seem to be particularly popular (or should I say, particularly arousing). They take great joy from smashing stuff up, too. So, humping and smashing and giggling at smut (and a bit of murder) is what these FREAKS do best.

So what's it all about? I'd seen Gummo, so I knew Harmony Korine was a director with plenty to say. I haven't read the other reviews here or postings or any comments by the director, so my thoughts here are purely my own response to the film and may well be way off what Korine intended or what others see in it, but, no matter. I think it's about a consumer society that produces trash--obsolescence, consumption, wastefulness, trinkets, toys, the blandishments of consumerism. Human trash, too. Of a sort. Humans that get left behind--by education, wealth, affection, nurture, stability. This film shows three (four, really, plus a few more 'real life' examples) pieces of disenfranchised human trash doing their 'thang' amongst all the rest of the trash, because it doesn't matter what they do, no-one cares about them so why should they care about anything--even if they were intellectually able to. At one point, the female freak says, "I don't mean to do wrong, Lord". This is the closest one of the characters comes to some kind of lucidity, awareness of her condition and the behaviors she takes part in. Otherwise, it's just a litany of "Three little devils", "Make it make it", and "Single girl" (the three most common 'riffs' repeated in the film). These songs are meaningless, too, because, again, it just doesn't matter. It's all just trash trash trash: hump it, kill it, laugh at it, jerk off at it, sleep on it, fall over in it...who cares! As I said, maybe I'm way off the mark with my interpretation. Nonetheless, there is often hilariousness (and a touch of envy?) when these characters disport themselves with utter brainless abandon in the most ridiculous and antisocial ways--I kind of wish I could dance crazily and giggle uninhibitedly as I smashed up a TV in a parking lot for no reason at all.

The film ends with the woman freak having a real live baby in her possession. We've earlier seen what she and her fellow freaks do with a doll and with the 'education' of a young boy, so the thought of her having a real baby has the potential to send shivers down the spine. But...Make It Make It Don't Fake It. "Three little devils jumped over a wall..."

Old people or homeless or psychotic people doing weird crap is funny, and Korrine is one of the only people that can get away with the "no plot/day in the life" kind of movie. But I kept wondering if using actual old people would've made it better or worse.

It's worth watching if you like Harmony Korrine or unsettling people just running around for 90 minutes. People looking for symbolism or depth in this movie are ridiculous.

Three vagrants in Halloween masks spend their nights humping rubbish bins and their days befriending likeminded individuals in this quizzical comedy from Harmony Korine. Whereas Korine's latter 'Spring Breakers' is a remarkable film that gradually reveals itself to be anything but what one would expect from its title, promotional posters and opening shots of bikini-clad beachgoers, 'Trash Humpers' is a film that delivers exactly one would expect from the title, posters and opening shots. Any semblance of plot is near non-existent here as the trio simply engage in strange and depraved behaviour for the whole 78 minute duration. Some of their mischief is admittedly memorable, such as making two flatmates eat pancakes covered in dishwashing liquid and teaching a well-dressed boy about various pranks, but the vast majority of the film comes off as extremely repetitive due to the very limited plot. It does not help that the film looks unappealing too, shot and edited on grainy VHS with large bouts of video interference. With their high pitched squealing and cackling laughs, the characters are additionally grating to follow around. It is easy enough to appreciate what Korine is trying to do here, presenting three individuals who manage to find enjoyment and fulfillment in life while defying social conventions. There is also a lot to like in the idea to shoot the film on VHS to give the material a found footage appearance, however, whether all this makes for a film that is entertaining, enlightening or at least engaging is highly debatable.

Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers is an ode to cinematic lawlessness and unadulterated mischief. This is the strangest film Korine has ever made, which says a lot seeing as he was the driving force behind Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy, two of the most unique films of the nineties decade. What makes it so significant in its perplexing obscurity is that it seems to be devoid of any meaning, where with Korine's two previous films you could totally sense there was something there - regardless of how it was presented or how subtle it appeared to be. Trash Humpers seems to have no meaning at all, and feels like Korine's handwritten insult to the unwritten laws of cinema that have threaded the cloth of conventionality.

The film is shot on a low-quality VHS camera and follows three grotesque subhumans around town, who commit several unthinkable atrocities such as vandalism and public indecency, almost obtaining a strange form of pleasure from it. The three characters also wear petrified masks, resembling elderly people, to hide their identity and further make themselves irredeemably ugly. That's what this picture is in a nutshell - "irredeemably ugly" - as well as repulsive, unappealing, beyond offbeat, and a tough sit, even for its seventy-eight minute runtime.

Korine's goal, if he even has any here, seems to be incorporating so much senseless imagery, unique style, lewd acts, shameless and ugly characters, and no cohesion in an attempt to make the most unwatchable film. And don't forget the touch of old school film editing and taping, which we'll get in to. It's one of the first times I'll call a film "unwatchable" not because of poor content but downright bad content committed by the film's characters. The stuff they are doing, humping mailboxes, running aimlessly screaming, breaking public property, and engaging in murder is unwatchable; the film itself is a mildly-amusing, but trivial novelty.

However, I especially enjoyed the film's shot-on-VHS style, making strong note of the choppiness, the messiness, and the long-forgotten imperfections of VHS-quality tapes in a flawless, digitally-driven world. This gives the film a very lowly look to it, almost appearing like a sick home movie that was released to the public due to a criminal mistake. Some have compared it to Jackass, due to the excessive amount of silliness and pride the characters take in reeking havoc. I simply can't, because Jackass made me smile and laugh, while viewing Trash Humpers left me deeply disturbed and somewhat scarred.

And yet, I emerge more positive than I thought I'd e. The tone of the picture is so eerie and unpleasant, and the effect it has on a viewer is somewhat lasting. I can't give it a completely positive review, for the film doesn't feature many attractive qualities other than its cinematography and is burdened by a longer-than-necessary length (forty-five minutes would've been more ideal). However, it earns a recommendation to the most adventurous and curious cinephiles - a group that might still emerge disgusted and somewhat horrified. It's a hard film to watch, and even harder to like, yet that could be Korine's ultimate goal overall.

Directed by: Harmony Korine.

...but certainly not very good, either.

Believe it or not, there were a few things about this movie that I genuinely liked. I found some of the weird comedy to be hilarious and laughed out loud several times throughout the film. I also thought that Korine did a pretty good job at creating a really dirty and disturbing atmosphere. These elements of both comedy and horror both work to make the movie at least watchable at times, but unfortunately do not save it from being just an overall bad movie.

Perhaps I found it to not be absolutely TERRIBLE only because of how low my expectations were before watching this oddity. I thought it looked like, well, trash-but then I found some highly well done aspects and thought that this movie could possibly be okay, but then it just dragged on and on and on. At just 70 minutes, this is a needlessly long movie that easily could have been half as long and much better.

I would also like to comment on the film's annoying and ugly visual style. It's obvious that it was an experimental, stylistic choice to have the movie shot on crappy looking video, and it does work slightly to the films advantage to make it seem more creepy and trashy, but it just doesn't appeal to me in any way. There's other, more tolerable ways to make your movie look sort of real and dirty.

I would not recommend this movie to most people, but if you're curious enough and a big fan of Harmony Korine's work, I would give it a mild and cautious recommendation.