# Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

### reviewed by
Michael Dequina

_julien_donkey-boy_ (R) no stars (out of ****)

In February, I said that no film this year could possibly be worse than the thoroughly unwatchable _Six_Ways_to_Sunday_. Well, I take that back. The sophomore directorial effort of Harmony Korine (whose 1997 debut, _Gummo_, is the epitome of love-hate films) is one steaming, smelly pile of cinematic excrement. Much has been made that this "film" (using that term very loosely) is the first American production to be made under Dogme 95--the commandments of cinematic "purity" created by Danish filmmakers Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, among others-- but slapping on such a label doesn't excuse Korine's sloppy, downright incoherent filmmaking. You know you're in trouble when the synopsis provided in the film's press notes in no way resembles what you see on screen. Purportedly, the film is about the "internal struggle" of schizophrenic julien (Ewen Bremner), which "increases in intensity until the film's shocking and bizarrely transcendent conclusion."

Now, this is what I saw for 94 long, seemingly endless minutes: scenes of Bremner jumping up and down and speaking incoherently; scenes of julien's pregnant sister Pearl (Chloë Sevigny) dancing ballet and playing the harp; wordless scenes of a young blind figure skater (Chrissy Kobylak) doing a routine; and, most memorably, julien's father (Werner Herzog) hosing down and belittling julien's brother Chris (Evan Neumann) into becoming "a champion"--that is, whenever not chugging cough syrup and listening to records while wearing a gas mask. To say that none of it adds up would be to imply a natural connection between scenes that isn't there. The herky-jerky Dogme camera movements and grainy film stock just makes the film look more like--and thereby confirm--what it is: pure garbage.

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