Gummo
A film does not always need a linear plot line, protagonists and antagonists, and a carefully fitted genre to convey something authentic. Authenticity can be achieved by something much less ascribable. Harmony Korine achieves this in Gummo with a huge number of characters, an indescribable story, and cinematography that jumps back and forth from home video to music video. The film intermingles vignettes about children growing up in small town Xenia, Ohio. There are many things about these children that are arguably unrealistic. At times it seems like your are listening to children stumble over the dialogue of adults. The slew of social issues the children encounter such as prostitution, violence, poverty, death, and sexual molestation, just to name a few, seem to be way to plentiful for a town of only a few thousand. What Korine is able to impress is a mood that conveys the significance and the weight of what it means to be young and already lost. Most of these children are going no where and they already know it.