Unstreamable: Gummo (4K Restoration)
November 21, 2024
This screening has been moved to the SIFF Film Center. See siff.net/egyupdate for more information.
Teen friends Tummler (Nick Sutton) and Solomon (Jacob Reynolds) navigate the ruins of a tiny, tornado-ravaged town in Ohio that is populated by the deformed, disturbed, and perverted. Elsewhere, the mute Bunny Boy (Jacob Sewell) dons rabbit ears and is bullied by kids half his age, and sisters Dot (Chloe Sevigny) and Helen (Carisa Glucksman) dodge a pedophile.
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Shot in Nashville but set in tornado-ravaged Xenia, Ohio, Gummo feels like a fever dream you can't shake. The film follows Solomon and Tummler, two glue-huffing teens who make pocket money by drowning cats, but that's just the beginning of this midwestern odyssey. Three sisters are trapped in an endless summer of neglect, a grandmother is tended to by her cross-dressing grandson, and a pair of skinhead brothers turn their kitchen into a boxing ring. Korine, who would later direct Spring Breakers and this year's neon nightmare Aggro Dr1ft, shoots it all through a kaleidoscope of formats—Super 8, Polaroids, VHS—creating something that feels less like a movie and more like an art installation gone sideways.
Gummo sparked outrage when it premiered in 1997, with some critics calling it exploitative poverty porn while others hailed it as a raw masterpiece. But both sides missed the point. The movie isn't poverty tourism or shock for shock's sake—it's American Gothic turned up to 11, where even the most disturbing moments are shot with a strange beauty. Like finding a dead cat floating in a pool of glitter, Gummo is both repulsive and mesmerizing.
Fair warning: This film isn't for everyone. But if you're willing to follow Korine down this rabbit hole, you'll find something unlike anything else in American cinema.
- Director: Harmony Korine
- Principal Cast: Jacob Reynolds, Nick Sutton, Chloë Sevigny, Max Perlich
- Country: USA
- Year: 1997
- Running Time: 89 min.
- Producer: Cary Woods
- Screenplay: Harmony Korine
- Cinematographers: Jean-Yves Escoffier
- Editors: Christopher Tellefsen
- Filmography: Mister Lonely (2007), Spring Breakers (2012), The Beach Bum (2019), and Aggro Dr1ft (2023)
- Language: English