Mr Lonely

Its been ages since I watched Mr Lonely by Harmony Korine, but for some reason the penny dropped for me just this week and then somehow I couldn't stop thinking about it..

I didn't really join the dots previously, but now see how it makes the link between colonialism/religious missionaries and hollywood celebrity culture / us geopolitical and cultural hegemony . And one of the real masterstrokes in the film is that the impersonator play in one of the final scenes so much resembles a religious nativity play, though it was totally illegible to me then.

I am a big fan of his films, largely because they seem to be constructed around perfect iconic scenes (maybe in the true or even religious sense) where image, music and story all come together, and these moments seem to materialise on some atemporal plain that is parallel to the plot. Anyway, so many of his films rely on viscerality and abjection, that in contrast perhaps this film might have been overlooked. 

Anyway, in posting this I can now stop thinking about it.