Gummo

REVIEW
Will all those who feel a stir whenever they come across one of Calvin Klein's desolate ads for Obsession or CKOne please stand up -- come on, you know who you are. You're going to love this movie! For the rest of us, this extended exercise in vapidity will prove sheer excruciation. Like one long, strung out (in both senses of the term) Klein ad, this directorial debut from the writer of Kids traipses around the central Ohio town of Xenia, which has never recovered from the tornado that hit it several years prior. As seen from the point of view of a handful of the town's unsupervised adolescents, we are given over to extended, cloying (chickenhawkish even) shots of these young wastrels as they go about their daily activities. These include such things as killing stray cats and selling them to the local Chinese restaurant, the proceeds of which they use to buy inhalants for huffing. All this is not to say that Korine -- who has dubbed himself the Werner Herzog of the MTV generation -- is completely without talent. In fact, his film stylistically resembles early Herzog efforts -- he even makes use of dwarves! But that's actually part of the problem, this stuff isn't original. And, sure, it's rebellious, but it has no substance.