Director: Harmony Korine
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.0
An unsuccessful Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) goes with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) to a commune where they - and other unsuccessful impersonators - can continue to be unsuccessful. It's really a case of Korine trying a little too hard: he asks for sympathy for figures who are glaringly - and purposely - pathetic, and makes comments throughout about fame meaning immortality, how "everyone" wants to live forever (except those in the old age home who are suffering and need relief) and how people don't want to "be" themselves (all grand assertions), but the movie is more quirky than probing and Korine is more art-damaged than sensitive. Despite this being his first movie in about eight years, he still shows flashes of talent: the skydiving sequences are gorgeous (and the color palette and framing evoke Matthew Barney's Cremaster films) and the concluding shots suggest a kind of death of spirituality which has been hinted at in his prior films (Gummo being a post-apocalyptic horror show, Julien Donkey-Boy exploring the decay of the self).
