Gummo (1997)

Director: Harmony Korine
Country: US
Length: 86 minutes
Genres: Drama

One night a few years ago I was channel surfing and paused on IFC (my usual go to entertainment for insomnia). On the screen there were two teenage boys riding bikes down a hill to the song "Dragonaut" by the California stoner metal band, Sleep. I didn't know what the hell I was watching but I was really intrigued by the music and continued to watch.

Harmony Korine (who wrote the script for "Kids") directed this film about Xenia, Ohio a town that after being hit by a tornado in 1974 just never seemed to recover. While there is no linear plot, the film instead consists of random clips of the towns residents, many of whom are homeless or very disturbing.

I watched this movie about five times and still couldn't find the meaning of it until a friend explained that there was none. He just told me that the only way to understand it is "to relate to it".

What do you think? Please leave thoughts and feedback if you've seen this movie or after you see it, I'm really curious to hear what others think about it. I'm going out of town for a couple of weeks, I look forward everyones posts!

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The @m3r1c@n @str0n@ut (2001)

Director: Cory Mcabee
Runtime: 94 minutes
Language: English

The problem with most musicals is that whenever the singing comes in it simply does not fit in with the rest of the movie. It comes off as cheesy and forced. There is one musical where I don't believe this is true, and it's this one. In this odd space-western, the singing fits in perfectly and never comes off as forced. A unique movie I recommend to everybody on here.

IMDB

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It's kind of creepy that this has a download before I've even posted this anywhere.

Arthur's Upload #3 (1992)

Directors: Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Benoit Poelvoorde
Country: Belgium (Film is in French)
Length: 95 minutes
Genres: Black Comedy, Mockumentary

This is probably one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and the 2nd best film of the 90s. It's a mockumentary about this film crew making some documentary about a serial killer, following who he kills and how he does them. Eventually the film crew is interesting in this, and join in on the killings. People will either find this film extremely offensive or extremely hilarious, maybe even both. If a film manages to intentionally make you laugh in a rape scene, that's skills.

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I Am So Proud of You (2008)

Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Country: United States
Length: 22 minutes
Genre: Animation, Black Comedy, Surrealism, Drama

The sequel to Everything Will Be Ok, I Am So Proud of You shows Bill's childhood and his eventual death. Don Hertzfeldt does just as fantastic of a job making the viewer laugh at the most disturbing events as he did in the previous short. The genius of his shorts is that not only are they hilarious but they can also affect you on a deep emotional level.

Don continues his innovative technique here as he introduced in the previous installment in the series of using multiple frames at a same time, sometimes having a frame for the drawn stick figures and another for film on screen at the same time.

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Everything Will Be OK (2006)

Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Country: United States
Length: 17 minutes
Genre: Animation, Black Comedy, Surrealism, Drama

This animated short is about a man named Bill who's life, or lack thereof, is humorously depicted throughout the film. As it goes on Bill steadily loses his mind, probably due to some sort of mental illness like schizophrenia. Don Hertzfeldt has a unique style of using stick figure drawings and splitting the screen up in to multiple windows. The end result is a very compelling and humorous short film that stays interesting throughout its entirety.

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