Trash Humpers

I saw TRASH HUMPERS at a screening in L.A. where Harmony Korine was there to introduce it and also do a Q&A afterwards.

I was wildly disappointed with the lame array of questions that were thrown at him. Probably 90% were brainless, pointless, and uninteresting.

The question I wanted to ask him was "is Trash Humpers in any way a statement or mockery on TRASH ART in general?".

To me, this is how the movie came across. With a name like Trash Humpers, what else can you expect? It is one of the most pointless and trashiest movies I have ever seen - but that is exactly what I came for, and it effectively delivered that.

It's full of humping, cussing, assorted offensive jokes, violence, vandalism, religion bashing, and anything else you'd expect in a trash art film. The difference is that with most trash art, the point is to try to shock you, scar you, or offend you. Trash Humpers, to me, seems more like it's doing these things in such a way that it's all a big joke - to take all of the other movies that have already done it, and re-enact them while giggling.

After all, I feel that movies really are coming to a point where it is nearly impossible to shock people through exploitative sex, violence, etc. So why not find a nice comfortable place where we can live in that kind of world for an hour and a half and not try to shock anyone? We can just float through it and accept this demoralized joke of a world - that's the world that Trash Humpers creates to me.

Unfortunately, when you start mocking your own genre or personal style of art, along with that comes the instinctive drive to take it to a far enough level where you are pushing people away. I felt that with several obnoxious things repeating throughout the film (such as Harmony's character constantly YELLING in your ear through entire scenes from right behind the camera) - he was showing signs of this kind of behavior. This is something I have observed from my own experiences as part of artistic projects, as well as observing friends mocking their own work. I have watched this kind of behavior occur with a lot of people towards the end of their artistic cycle.

Of course, my interpretation of the movie could be completely off from how Harmony sees it. But, it's nice to have different perspectives isn't it? I enjoyed it - especially the fact that I got to see it in a theater with Harmony in attendance. But, I don't know if I'd ever want to watch it again. We'll always have Gummo for those endless viewings...

...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.

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.

"Make it, don't take it, make it, don't fake it."

Anyone who has ever played with a 90's camcorder will be familiar with the colours and textures seen from the beginning in this film. This is not some nostalgic sun drenched glo-fi romanticism however, this s**t is dark. And this s**t sticks.

The very first scenes are all just seconds long and in them we are introduced to a number of odd looking characters. They appear to be old but clearly with enough vigour to grind/bang/hump/whatever garbage bins and trash pussy as if they were still in their youthful prime. They certainly seem to have much youthful mischief and we watch in a kind of distanced, disgusted trance as they defecate, smash televisions, let off firecrackers and tap dance.

Are we to judge these people? Are they real or are they actors? What will they do next? Will we stick around long enough to find out or will we leave the theatre? Are we laughing with them or at them or worse, are they laughing at us?

The introduction given at the start mentioned Lynch, Hitchcock and Jackass. In the future I think you need only mention Korine. Whether he is saying something intelligent or something dumb about American outsider society, whether he is merely holding up a mirror to us wherever we are we can not say he isn't an original, an auteur and a provocateur. Should this be a film for film students to study or should it be one that the weirdo's in class try and make you watch? The themes thrown up (maybe that should be shat out) are certainly interesting but why on Earth would you want to deconstruct what is essentially a bunch of drunken old juvenile delinquents laughing and embracing failure, f**king trees and living their version of the American dream?

The most shocking parts of the film are the sounds not the visuals, if anything I found it oddly easy to watch after the initial punches in the eyes, my ears however did just not get accustomed. In one scene a man tells the most offensive 'jokes' to a rapt audience, and there are many clips showing just how noisy America is, even at night. There is a constant buzz of electric lights everywhere, there is the traffic and there are the crickets. Its enough to drive someone insane.

This film is beat poetry. This film is soapy pancakes. This film is noise metal. This film is giving a birthday cake to a constipated man sitting on the toilet. This film is a headache. This film is trapping your d**k in your flies.