Curdles into fanciful obscurantism
Mister Lonely (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:68
Fresh:31
Rotten:37
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: Less biting or offensive than Korine's earlier works, this frustratingly dull film still maintains the director's trademark odd beauty.
Theatrical Release:May 2, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: After the success of indies GUMMO and JULIEN DONKEY-BOY in the late 1990s, writer-director Harmony Korine's follow-up is this dramedy. Diego Luna (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) stars as a Michael Jackson... After the success of indies GUMMO and JULIEN DONKEY-BOY in the late 1990s, writer-director Harmony Korine's follow-up is this dramedy. Diego Luna (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) stars as a Michael Jackson impersonator who follows a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) to a Scottish commune filled with celebrity lookalikes. Cinema legends Werner Herzog and Anita Pallenberg costar. [More]
Starring: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox
Starring: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox, Anita Pallenberg, Werner Herzog, David Blaine
Director: Harmony Korine
Director: Harmony Korine
Screenwriter: Harmony Korine, Avi Korine
Producer: Nadja Romain
Studio: IFC Films
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Reviews for Mister Lonely
The film, more ant farm than movie, seems like a lazy effort from a talent who has lost his edge.
This film may be Korine's most accessible as a director, featuring characters, images, and situations that are stirring and unforgettable -- even if they don't add up to a complete narrative or visual whole.
Fails to achieve any kind of cumulative meaning outside of Korine's private amusement.
The film has a delicate and deliberate pace. While all the characters could be assigned symbolic motivations, most just seem like annoying and self-indulgent jokes within director Harmony Korine's eccentric point of view.
Mister Lonely falls into the 'art house' category of film, and you can multiply that by 100.
Korine has found an evocative subject, but he remains entirely too cavalier in this attitude towards narrative coherence.
In contrast to the grimy and occasionally grotesque Gummo (1997) and Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), this drama has a more gentle, Felliniesque feel.
The film doesn't work, and indeed seems to have no clear idea of what its job is, and yet (sigh) there is the temptation to forgive its trespasses simply because it is utterly, if pointlessly, original.
Korine falls so thoroughly in love with many of his images, including his opening shot, that he stretches them out in hypnotic slow motion.
Korine may have an original voice and eye but can't really think of anything interesting to do with them.
Like Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, the film has overarching problems yet contains diamonds of clarity and inspiration that you won't find in any dozen movies. You'll have to mine for those diamonds, though.
Korine's most lavishly produced pic to date begins as a sweet-tempered tale of social misfits-turned-celebrity impersonators, but falls short of its ambition to say something meaningful about the obsessive nature of celebrity culture.
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November 17, 2008:
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The summer's biggest oohs and ahhs (and guffaws) hit DVD this week, as Wall-E and Tropic Thunder hit shelves with tons of bonus content for fans. Cineastes will be rewarded by... More...
November 16, 2008:
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May 07, 2008:
Neither cameos by magician David Blaine and director Werner Herzog nor the haunting strains of Bobby Vinton on the title track prove to be enough to make the meaningless meanderings of these celebrity impersonators worthwhile. ![]()
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May 01, 2008:
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