Last Month, Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina, washing away Chimney Rock and much of Asheville. A week and a half later, Hurricane Milton swung across Florida, hitting areas already recovering from Helene, and dropping 41 tornados on the state. The first deaths in Florida were when one of the tornados crossed a line of evacuating cars. The Climate Crisis has come to our streets, and it is ushering in a new status quo. Films like The End We Start From (2024) use educated examples to try and reach us now about what lies ahead. Other films are being recontextualized. Twister (1996), a film about improving warnings, addiction and marriage, is now, via Twisters (2024), a film about more active weather solutions and emergency mitigation. Gummo (1997), the inaugural directorial effort of cinema’s favorite bad boy, Harmony Korine (Spring Breakers; Aggro Drift), has gone from a film about generational economic despair to a warning about our present, right as Criterion added a 4K edition of the film to the collection.
L-R: Jacob Reynolds as Solomon and Nick Sutton as Tummler in Harmony Korine’s 1997 Dramedy GUMMO. Image Courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
There have been a lot of 4K releases this year, but Gummo is up there with one of the cleanest looking transfers. Given Korine’s recent fascination with digital aesthetics, the worry that he would digitally wrap the film in de-noised plastic is reasonable, but, happily, the grit and grime of Gummo are well preserved. What is shocking about the film in 4K is how clear it is in UHD. The work of French cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier (Good Will Hunting; The Lovers on the Bridge) is stunning. The world of Gummo is sticky. You can feel the grime in the air, like standing next a Coney Island sewer grate on the 4th of July, or Hollywood and Vine after 8 p.m. in August. The UHD takes full advantage of the overcast light and vérité cinematography of the film’s 35 mm sequences, as well as Escoffier’s brilliant eye, to increase the separation of easily muddled scenes through color. It’s great stuff, and it’s up there with Brick (2005), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and The Conversation (1974) as one of my favorite 4K editions of the year.
Jacob Sewell as Bunny Boy in Harmony Korine’s 1997 Dramedy GUMMO. Image Courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Gummo follows the teenagers of Xenia, Ohio, a town that remains devastated from a tornado from years earlier. The loss of economic opportunity has left an obvious mark on the town, but more than that is the loss of love and generational guidance that comes when a multitude of life is lost at once. While the film looks great when it’s in 35 mm, it opens with a sequence mixing Hi-8, 16 mm, Polaroid, Super 8, and VHS footage shot by the children who acted in the film. Over this hypnotic footage is a narration from Jacob Reynolds (For the Love of the Game; The Road to Wellville), more of a confidential whisper, as he describes the horrific violence. No child should see any of the things he recounts to us, nor should he have lost his father so young. Throughout the film, Reynolds’s Sol bums around with Tummler (Nick Sutton), an older boy who leads their business killing cats and selling them to an Asian restaurateur. While this release strangely has no commentary track, the film itself isn’t lacking any.
“He’s got what it takes to be a legend. He’s got a marvelous persona.”
Sex trafficking, racist stereotypes, fetishization of queer folk, and violence come together like the colors of a halftone print, and the result is a portrait of angst. And what is angst but the unstructured emotions of the young or unguided? The film Gummo is fantastic and iconoclastic. Even today, Korine oozes this angst while the rest of the world is waiting for him to grow up, and on the 2K Blu-ray disk holds some real treats. He fires zingers at John Pierson on an appearance on Split Screen: Projections (1997), and he talks about cinema with Warner Herzog (Grizzly Man; Fitzcarraldo) for an hour at Sundance. Herzog is already one of the great talkers, but his admiration for Korine’s point of view and anger makes it a brilliant conversation. “It’s taped bacon,” “it’s science fiction,” “it’s new,” “it’s genrefuck;” as they try to define Gummo. But time has done that for them. When Gummo was made, it was about a very real “now” for very real people. Many of the fights are real, as are all the homes and broken families. The damage of the tornado, and the Reagan/Bush destruction of the American social net, were things these people would largely never overcome. But, in 1997, it was isolated. Today, it will only spread. The setup of Gummo is no longer a niche topic. It is one that can happen and is happening to many towns, any town, in the times to come. We can prepare to intervene and rebuild, or we can let the cats die in the grass and abandon the children to wander alone. It’s a warning; it’s recommended. It’s Gummo in 4K.
Gummo Criterion Special Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Harmony Korine, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New interview with Korine
- Conversation from 1997 between Korine and filmmaker Werner Herzog
- Split Screen: Projections episode from 2000 featuring Korine in conversation with host John Pierson
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Carlos Aguilar and an appreciation by filmmaker Hype Williams
- New illustration by Joao Rosa
Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray Combo and Blu-ray October 22nd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official The Criterion Collection Gummo webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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