Julien Donkey-Boy

Plot synopsis:
The film opens on television footage of an ice dancer - a recurring motif in the film - before cutting away to Julien, a young man with untreated schizophrenia. In the opening scene, Julien meets up with a small child with several turtles, only to strangle him to death when he is denied one. The child is then buried by Julien under the mud whilst he prays for mercy from God.
From here, we see snapshots of the members of Julien's dysfunctional family. These include his pregnant sister Pearl, the father of her baby not being revealed (though there are implications that it could indeed be Julien's), his brother Chris, who aspires to be a wrestler, his grandmother, and his domineering, German father, who shows no real love or encouragement to his family.
Rather than follow a linear narrative, we instead see various scenes and vignettes involving the main characters, such as Julien working at a school for the blind, going to confession, muttering to himself on the streets and imagining conversations with Hitler. Pearl meanwhile learns to play the harp, looks for baby clothes for her soon-to-be-born child, lists her favorite baby names and cuts her Father's hair. Chris spends practically the entire film working out and practicing his wrestling moves on trash cans, even having a frustratingly unserious match with Julien. And the Father recounts historical stories, lambasts Julien and Pearl for 'artsy-fartsy' poetry and being 'a dilettante and a slut' respectively, though also pines for his dead wife.
The climax of the film sees Pearl and Julien at an ice-skating rink. Whilst Julien tries to sell some home-made skates to a Hassidic Jewish boy, Pearl takes to the ice despite being heavily pregnant.
She accidentally trips over, landing on her stomach and causing a miscarriage. Her fate remains unknown. At the hospital however, Julien convinces a nurse to let him hold the baby, stating it is his. She allows this, but whilst she leaves him alone with the baby, Julien makes an escape, getting on the bus to go home.
Julien goes up to his room, hiding under the blankets, cradling the baby and muttering prayers. The film ends as it begins; with ice-skating footage.

Tags: avant garde, cruelty, murder, mystery, absurd, psychedelic, romantic, sadist

Review:
It is not "a movie", as in "Hey, Mary, let's go down to the multiplex and catch Julien Donkey-Boy." No. I have the mixed pleasure of understanding this film's subject matter as a clinician.
What may seem like unsophisticated art school techniques with sound and image to the casual viewer rang absolutely affectively true to me, as a person who has worked in locked units of state mental hospitals with these families.
Harmony Korine's Julien Donkey-Boy, is nothing less than real filmic art.
It chronicles a day or so in the life of Julien, a teenage schizophrenic, and the other family members he lives with:  his sister, his frustrated and abusive father, played nicely by Werner Herzog, (of all people), his younger brother, and his grandmother.
Korine is a master of using film to communicate story and messages, specifically through the use of editing, cinematography and visual effects.
This is brilliant filmmaking -- an example of "show, don't tell" yet through use of film form rather than character action.Indelibly, it is Korine's unconventional film style, of which a good deal looks experimental, yet all of which is handled expertly, that will also keep him at the fringes of the film world, barring him the popularity he deserves.
The film demands an aggressive viewer, one who wants to share the boldness of the director's vision, while deciphering it through his or her own knowledge of film conventions and prior knowledge.Julien Donkey-Boy is not as emotionally powerful as Korine's previous film, Gummo, yet it is just as important in what it has to say about film as a medium of communication, and, about the people who are living at the margins of society..
This extremely disturbing film about a man/boy with schizophrenia struggling through life with his twisted and mentally abusive dad, his sister who is pregnant with his baby, and his abused brother, is terrifyingly weird.
It has also been well known that for this film project, Harmony recorded real people's reactions of some of the strange behavior with hidden cameras.
Harmony Korine, in directing and writing this film, has done exactly what he set out to do - he has created a concentrated dose of family life with schizophrenia.
Julien intentionally and clearly positions its audience as voyeurs, using hand-held photography almost exclusively and allowing character- development (the bulk of the film) to dictate the pace and rhythm of every scene.
All of the acting is superb, and although there are very few feel-good moments in this film, it may be somewhat cathartic for folks like me, and somewhat (painfully) enlightening for those who grew up in less dysfunctional, or more-traditionally dysfunctional, families..
Much like European directors Thomas Vinterberg, Lars Von Trier, Jean Luc Goddard, and Werner Herzog (who plays the father!), young American director Harmony Korine is not content to just produce a product.
Being a so called 'Dogme' film, "Julien Donkey Boy" has a voyueristic bent, akin to watching a home movie you found on the street.
This is the way some people actually live- someone you know, maybe even yourself, and that's why this film works.
If I have any criticism, it's not of "Julien" per se, but the fact that all of Korine's films have dealt with teenagers, therefore probably making it easier for some to dismiss his work as merely 'fringe'..
I thought the end of the film was very offensive when watching it, but thinking back on it now, it was handled very well and the movie was telling a story.
This film comes pretty close to nailing the day-in, day-out obstacles that mentally ill people must encounter, making something as simple as a bus ride to work a harrowing adventure fraught with slopes.
The other side is comprised of films that are shocking, repulsive, and generally don't move forward with their stories, instead shuffling sustained sequences where virtually nothing changes, shapelessly finding its way to the end of the movie.
Most people may believe that there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy, at least in most cases, but I fervently disagree, and films like "Julien Donkey-Boy" could be the best evidence I have for this belief.
"Julien Donkey-Boy" is an intensely evocative and emotional experience filled with memorable characters and moments, bits and pieces of philosophical dialogue, awkward black humor, perverse behavior, terrifying imagery, disorienting editing, avant garde beauty, and plenty more are constantly showcased during the entirety of this entertaining, yet artistically extreme and highly ambitious (to an almost unrealistic level) film.
These are real people that see to have been plopped into a fictional world, Harmony Korine lets his imagination run wild despite dogme 95's extreme limitations.
Julien Donkey-Boy - One of the realest films I've ever seen.
Julien Donkey-Boy is Harmony Korine's second feature film, and follows the lives of a dysfunctional family.
With the combination of the filming style, to the characters, to the events, to the performances - this film genuinely feels like real life.
Harmony Korine's Julien Donkey-Boy is a difficult film to endure for ninety-nine minutes; a complex and crippling one.
Korine followed Gummo up with Julien Donkey-Boy, a film done in the style of "Dogme 95," a filmmaking movement that focused on the naturalism of dialog, story, and plot-progression by using hand-held cameras, source sound, lighting, and props.
It also prohibited that directors be credited from their work, so Harmony Korine isn't even known as the official director of this film.The plot: Julien (Ewen Bremner) is a young, schizophrenic man who lives in his home with his extremely dysfunctional family, consisting of his instigating father (the great German director Werner Herzog), his passive brother Chris (Evan Neumann), and his sister Pearl (Chloë Sevigny), who is carrying Julien's child.
Schizophrenia is a mental-disease with effects like those portrayed in the film, and therefore, the reality is more distorted as we are seeing it from the title character's perspective.
I wouldn't have him, or this film, any other way the more I think about it.Starring: Ewen Bremner, Chloë Sevigny, Werner Herzog, and Evan Neumann.
Much like Harmony Korines directional debut, Gummo; Julien Donkey-Boy is told in fragments rather than following a linear plot.
Julien Donkey-Boy is a work of beauty: a masterpiece in every way.
Julien Donkey-Boy is Harmony Korine's attempt to follow in the footsteps of filmmakers Vinterburg and Von Triers and make a film according to the guidelines they set in their "Dogme '95".
However, while this approach served a film like Vinterburg's "Festen" incredibly well by giving a sense of reality to the narrative through improvisation and the use of hand-held camera, in this film the Dogme guidelines are used for very self-indulgent purposes (e.g. the over-use of Herzog's improvisational turns and the dead fetus theft incident at the end of the film, which has no moral purpose or message but is used, IMO, as a means of mimicking the "bad taste" elements of the previous Dogme films "The Idiots" and "Festen").
As a result, this film comes off as a cheap imitation of the previous Dogme films; more obsessed with style than the accompanying narrative.To add insult to injury, Julien Donkey-Boy is also one in a long line of films that gives a completely inaccurate portrayal of a person suffering from the psychological disorder schizophrenia (other examples: Me, Myself and Irene, The Cell......).
Although this may sound like a nitpicking point for film buffs (since accurate portrayal does not necessarily equate to a great film), the problem with the inaccurate portrayal in this case is that the central character (Julien Donkey-Boy) is reduced to a series of mannerisms performed by Ewen Bremner.
The result of this reductionist approach to the central character means that the audience never really gets to grips with the character and can never truly understand what is going on inside his mind; instead we get an actorly mimic of a genuinely schizophrenic person (apparently, this character was modeled on Korine's uncle).To conclude, this film is, IMO, a gross example of style over content with many examples of bad taste and self-indulgence..
WARNING: THIS CRITICAL REVIEW GIVES AWAY ONE (1) RATHER INSIGNIFICANT STORY EVENT.Although Harmony Korine's latest film proudly flaunts its "Dogma 95" minimalist seal of approval, Korine has little else to be proud of with "julien donkey-boy," save for the fact that unsuspecting people are actually paying money to see it > Featuring the shakiest camera work since "The Blair Witch Project," the experimental, mostly improvised "julien" has even less of a coherent storyline and structure than Korine's last stink bomb, "Gummo."  Yet the young writer/director is ever-insistent on grabbing the audience's attention with concepts that the general public finds vile (incest, transvestitism, etc.) and capitalizing on the insensitivity with which he gawks at the differently-abled individuals in his films (the often mentally-impaired and impoverished human oddities that pepper both films).My personal pick for the film's "funniest" moment is the scene in which Julien asks to recite a poem at the dinner table.
"julien" is, indeed, a prime example of that artsy-fartsy stuff, and it should serve as a reminder to us all: the words "original," "innovative," and "independent" do not always imply "good."It's unlikely that Harmony Korine will stop employing shock for shock's sake anytime soon, which is unfortunate, because that thrill leaves most art-house audience members during their teen years.
I don't consider myself an expert on the Dogma school of film-making, or avant garde technique in general, but I must say I found this more watchable, cohesive and engaging that Korine's `Gummo.'  Some people will invariably find a film `pretentious' if it challenges their expectations in any way, and I'm surprised that the P-word hasn't occurred more in the comments on this page.Regarding the look of this film, I think an earlier commentator's analogy to Van Gogh is interesting.
How many people find his work inscrutable today?When German director Werner Herzog, in the role of Julien's father, contemptuously disparages an `artsy-fartsy' poem, and goes on to describe a scene from a `Dirty Harry' film in glowing terms, you've got to wonder what is being said.
I'll gladly watch another Harmony Korine film, when it appears..
In short, julien donkey-boy is a quite interesting film.
Korine, so there's nothing tremendously shocking in the piece (and, when a director [oops, naughty word!] makes a career out of "shocking," this is what we expect.)  It is, at times, a beautiful film, using many creative techniques to establish scenes (a very prominent scene is an event between Julien and Chris in the kitchen involving bacon that is nothing more than a lightning-fast montage of quick cuts, very deftly exploring the mental ability to assemble pieces of information into a cohesive whole) and surprisingly glowing camera work.
Dogma reminds me of the Cultural Revolution: it basks in its ability to show "the truth," but it also wrecks and ridicules traditions that, while being far from necessary, never impair the true artist (why should the elimination of tripods get us anywhere closer to "the truth"?)   But Korine is able to transcend many of those hinderances, if sometimes only barely, and even cheats his way out of some of them: Dogma outlaws recognition of the director, but the first credit says simply "harmony korine" and shows a picture of the man himself (not to mention the trailer, which touts Korine as a genius alongside Fellini, and quotes Bertolucci's statement that Korine has "changed the language of film.") 
The thing is, every effect Korine is going for--trying to visually capture anxiety and confusion--could be done on regular film or higher-quality digital, but BETTER.
But this is just bad film-making.High point: Werner Herzog is too funny to believe in this movie, the best part by far..
The ending of this movie is absolutely revolting, but I guess if it has the power to make such a bold impression on the viewer, it is successful in its attempt to display the strange effects of schizophrenia on Julien's deranged family.
Julien Donkey-boy is an exercise in futility for the viewer, as is Korine's career up to this point, aside from the compelling narrative force he gave to his script for KIDS.
Harmony Korine may have a (slight) gift for writing considering he penned films like Kids and Ken Park, but his prowess as a director and visual storyteller is zero.
Herzog is pretty entertaining (I enjoyed a couple of his films with Klaus Kinski) and pretty funny, but of course that has nothing to do with one of the worst and most overrated directors in the history of celluloid: Harmony korine.
now yes, there are still great films that are told in regular Hollywood fashion, but julien-donkey boy doesn't do that.
but in film terms, i think harmonys take on schizophrenia was much better than oh, Hollywood's of "a beautiful mind"!!!
Harmony Korine has really made a masterpiece this time.The film is funny sad and very beautiful.
The patriarch of the family, Werner Herzog, does a believably eccentric adaptation of his own psycho-anatomy.Upon my first viewing of this film, I thought it was a documentary on a real life schizophrenic (due to Ewen Bremner's brilliant vocation of repressing his Scottish tongue to affect a uber-convincing accent that would put fellow Trainspotter Mcgregor to shame).
That was until I'd watched Harmony Korine's awful follow-up 'Julien Donkey-Boy', which is not only even MORE tedious and aesthetically displeasing, but phony as well.
Korine doesn't bother with character development, plot, structure, memorable dialogue, or anything else people usually value in film, but because he presents it "from the perspective of a schizophrenic" that is supposed to make this formless drivel some kinda major artistic statement.
There are some funny moments as others have stated, like when the whack-job father tells Julien that if "I was as stupid as you I would slap myself in the face".This movie was mostly just a train wreck that I only finished just to see if anything would actually happen.
I found this film to be very interesting and gripping, especially the role of Julien's father played by Werner Herzog.
Korine really shows here what can be done with film when he pushes the limits -- and in so pushing the limits he still comes up with a very good film that I feel is better than his first (Gummo).
The story is the family life of the title character, who is based on Harmony Korine's own uncle.The cast is top-notch.
This really works as an ensemble and puts many higher budget films to shame.Like Harmony's previous film, Gummo, Julien is filled with unforgettable scenes, which might be funny, frightening, tragic or all at once.
i liked this movie-i really love harmony korines work, its a great indulgence for my taste in films today because most films are quite predictable these days and lack origonality.
im not saying though that i only like unconventional films because they are cool and artsy i just know what i like and i like julien donkey boy, kids and gummo and i'm looking for ken park to watch.
One reason I like Harmony Korine's films is that he gives 'invisible' members of society the spotlight for a moment.Even though the parts have little to do with the central plot, some of the most memorable and enjoyable moments come from fringe characters, like the rapping albino or the cigarette smoking man in Julien Donkey-Boy.
...but I honestly think that is exactly what Harmony Korine makes his films to be.
He's never made a film to make money, he makes films that are made to look like trash, and then he thinks people actually want to watch it.
I do think HK makes these films for autistic people to relate to, rather than giving a normal person a view of their world.
The film's most bizarre performance came from German filmmaker Werner Herzog as the domineering father; i didn't really understand a lot of his dialogue but maybe that was Korine's intention.
Julien Donkey-Boy is a strangely beautiful film that i would like to watch again, so that i can fully appreciate its intensity and Korine's obvious passion for a different {revolutionary} form of contemporary film-making..
It's hard to tell that you're watching characters in Julien Donkey-Boy. The overall film makes you think they're real.
But not because of the subject matter, rather that after sitting through an hour and a half of nauseating film making, we have been given nothing.Personally, I like to watch a film every now and again that is made unconventionally, as I think they are interesting and make great works of art.
In the end, the only reason so many films are made in such similar ways, is just like why stories are told with such similar devices, because that is what works, and that's what audiences want.
I get that Harmony Korine did this on purpose to have us feel disorientated, like Julien feels all the time, but he takes it way to far and created a horrible looking mess.I liked Gummo, it was one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen, so I was very much looking forward to Julien Donkey-Boy, I was very disappointed.If Julien Donkey-Boy is what is passing for "Art" these days, I am out of touch with society.
Effective and artistic, its very much a Harmony Korine film..
In Julien Donkey-Boy, the film follows a schizophrenic teenager and his family, and it all takes place within a day or two.
Korine had a specific vision with his film and utilized his technique in creating a distorted and fragmented feature, which we can't help but wonder must resemble the thought process of its main character, Julien (Ewen Bremner).
He's sensitive but quite damaged and Bremner does not hold back in being honest and completely dedicated to the character.Julien lives at home with his pregnant sister (Chloe Sevigny), his tough father (Werner Herzog) and his little brother (Evan Neumann).
Julien Donkey-Boy is another masterful outing from Harmony Korine, its filled with enough visuals and scenes to to make it unforgettable.