Eye Candy of the Week: Harmony Korine

No one will argue with the fact that Harmony Korine isn’t very concerned with making his audiences feel comfortable.  Some might say the director goes to lengths to make you squirm in your seat.  But Korine’s gritty, grotesque and bizarre depictions of the downtrodden, the different and the troubled simultaneously carry a visually delicate and honest beauty, for instance, when Korine opted for a Dogme technique in the highly acclaimed Julien-Donkey Boy (1999).  While the glue-sniffing, cat-killing “Tom and Huck” duo in Korine’s directorial debut Gummo (1997) would make anyone want to go cry in a corner, the young director infuses his characters, such as the wandering “Bunny Boy,” with a helpless vulnerability that keeps you watching (perhaps against your own will).

Korine’s next feature, Mister Lonely, opens to limited release today after playing at SXSW and Tribeca.   The pic is certain to make some kind of cinematic impression.  Diego Luna stars as Michael Jackson who is invited by Marilyn Monroe played by Samantha Morton to a commune of impersonators, featuring Shirley Temple, James Dean, the Queen of England, Madonna, Sammy Davis Junior and Charlie Chaplin. The majority of the film is spent following these characters as they go about their day; Marilyn flirts with Michael, the Queen washes the dishes and James Dean writes in his notebook. While Korine may have pulled back on the shock, Mister Lonely still finds a way to blend the bizarre with the beautiful.  Oh yeah, and there’s also Werner Herzog as a priest with flying nuns.

The writer/director notoriously made his first splash a the mere age of 19 with the script of Larry Clark‘s Kids in 1995.  Korine got back together with Clark in 2002 by scripting Ken Park, a film so controversial, it failed to pick up a U.S. distributer.  But Korine is a well-rounded artist, venturing frequently outside of the realm of theatrical cinema.  A performance artists of sorts, Korine attempted to create Fight Harm in 1999, which features Korine trying (and succeeding) to pick fights with strangers on the street.  Due to obvious injuries, the project was abandoned.   Korine has wet his feet with a number of music videos: Sonic Youth‘s “Sunday”, featuring a pre-comeback and recently wed Macaulay Culkin, “No More Workhorse Blues” for Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Cat Power‘s “Living Proof,” and a little known video for Daniel Johnston‘s “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” of which no copy exists.  Korine has frequently worked with close friend David Blaine, including directing the made-for-TV documentary Above the Below. Korine has written some rather experimental books, published a book a photography which again features a pre-comeback Culkin and recorded an album under the name “SSAB Songs” with Brain Degraw, which Korine claims to have only listened to once.

Korine directed a whimsical commercial for Thornton’s Chocolates, titled “Stuck,” which features a small boy contemplating his purchase outside a chocolate shop, as the rest of the world is stuck in a stop-motion pause until he makes his decision.  Most recently, Korine directed a commercial for Budweiser, “Bud Band.”  In a typical style, the commercial features true-blue, no fuss characters, but with an odd twist.  The commercial is currently playing on U.K. television. Check out “Bud Band” below.