Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

framptonhollis This movie isn't for everyone, and both fans and detractors of the film must accept that. Someone who loves this film isn't automatically "pretentious" and someone who hates it isn't automatically "too stupid" for "art". That being said, I feel as if this film should at least be given a chance by everybody whose interested deeply in the movies. It is in no way a conventional film, it combines all sorts of styles and moods while still miraculously maintaining all of the requirements to be labeled officially as a dogme 95 film. In itself, that is quite the achievement, but Korine's brilliant film goes lightyears beyond accomplishing only that. 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. Harmony Korine does not bore audiences with constant brooding drama, but he does not pander to them by providing constant comedy. Instead, he shakes things up a bit on a scene by scene basis, or sometimes just on a minute to minute basis, or even a second to second basis; there are scene in this film that tackle the very difficult task of being both roaringly funny and deeply sad in a comparable fashion to such gems as "Happiness" or "Lolita". The film focuses on many troubling, disturbing themes, including mental illness, incest, death, abuse (physical and mental), deformity, loneliness, sadness, etc, but it's hardly ever downright depressing. It is tense and shocking, but only rarely can I say it made me feel really bad, and whenever it did that's because it was supposed to, and I realized that n these moments Korine is just doing his job, and he's doing it absolutely wonderfully. "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. You may love it, you may hate it, you may love some moments, and you may hate others. It can be seen as either a huge, tonally confused mess or a refreshingly original take on the dysfunctional family drama (if that's even what it wants to replicate, implying that such a cryptically bizarre film would really want to replicate anything). It's got moments that made me laugh out loud and others that made me choke on my own tears. There is one scene in which a man swallows a shocking amount of lighted cigarettes, and other scenes include a rapping albino, a man without any arms who drums with his feet, and plenty more. 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. He's a fearlessly unique and surreal filmmaker, a man whose films make my mind explode with confusion, happiness, and melancholy. Too bad he had to go on to make sh*t like "Trash Humpers"...

Robert Graham Julian Donkey Boy, created under the Dogma 95 – Vow of Chastity, is in my opinion, one of the worst films I have ever had the displeasure of sitting through. The Vow of Chastity states that the director must refrain from personal taste, and not create a work of art. All shooting must be done on location, with hand held cameras, and no sound can be used unless it is found where the scene is being shot. It also prohibits the use of superficial actions such as murder. All of this is meant to lead to a film which forces the truth out of its characters and settings, even at the expense of aesthetic considerations and good taste.Harmony Korine has certainly managed to create a film with no apparent taste, and even less aesthetic consideration. All this could be acceptable if the end product gave its audience something to take away, other than feelings of disgust. In a film about a dysfunctional family, where Julian is either mentally ill, or mentally deficient, his sister is pregnant with his child, his mother is dead, and his father is abusive, you would expect to be both shocked and moved. The final scene where Julian's sister slips on the ice and miscarries their child should be incredibly emotional, but I found myself completely unmoved as after nearly 90 minutes, I had formed no emotional attachment to any of the characters. For this reason, I didn't find the story disturbing, it failed to have any effect on me at all.Some people have said that this is a tough film to sit through, and on that I would agree. 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. But this film isn't trying to be a work of art, rather the opposite, so you have to ask what is it really doing? 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. This film is trying to drive a car with square wheels, just because everyone else has round ones. It may have had good intentions to begin with, but they have become lost somewhere amongst the flurry of vertiginous shots, and incoherent story line. Whilst a valuable educational resource for film students I wouldn't recommend this film for anyone else

jzappa There is a line that separates two types of independent art-house films often misconstrued as one. One side of the line is populated by films that are inventive and disturbingly stimulating of emotions, usually a completely nude display of unpleasant things and people. 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. julien donkey-boy could either be lying perfectly upon this line between both types of films, or it could be the latter type. Usually, the latter type can be very basically and degradingly entertaining, voyeuristically tempting you to continue watching its stylistic repugnance.A bigger part of me likes julien donkey-boy. A smaller part of me doesn't. The part of me that likes it is fond of the gritty, demented use of the camera. The film's setting, a trashy, lower middle class environment full of generally unhealthy and unattractive people, is appropriate for Anthony Dod Mantle's bleak, very very grainy and unglamorous lens. Upon reflection, I realize that the film was really trying to say something, but the part of me that doesn't like it tells me that it's too immediately unclear and abstract to be fully understood.The film's unabashed, possibly record-setting weirdness could be neither a plus or minus, and rather something meant to challenge the viewer, to make us reflect on the judgmental perspective that keeps many from understanding films like these and characters like those that are in it. So I suppose the verdict is that it's a good movie, but for a rare and acquired taste.

thomaswatchesfilms To represent the life of a schizophrenic through the medium of film, would be quite challenging, really. How could you possibly relate the total random madness and desperate attempts at self-control of a madman onto film? One would be wise to choose Dogme 95, as the life of these unfortunate people seems to be affected by and largely governed by, a series of rigid and obtuse beliefs, regimens or rituals put in place to form some sort of foundation in an otherwise random, "crazy" existence. They then hold fast to this foundation for dear life - white knuckles. Since these "rules" they live by come from insanity in the first place, and are not typically adaptable, or flexible, as life would require them to be, everything they attempt becomes convoluted and lost in madness and confusion. And so everything is completely unsettled, because they can't adapt. Dogme 95, with its odd, rigid requirements, vis-a-vis the "Vow of Chastity" (www.dogme95.dk) goes a long way toward capturing that dynamic. 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 whole thing reminds me of the LSD scene in "Easy Rider" with the call girls in the grave yard. That was as close as I have ever seen to a realistic depiction of an acid trip in a film (you'll have to trust me on this one folks...), and this film has the same feel of reality to it. Almost as if it were a film about a schizophrenic, directed by and acted by schizophrenics. It's amazing.Bremner is brilliant. I didn't even recognize him until I read the credits, and afterward I believed that he should have been awarded for this outing - just completely convincing. Almost as if this were a documentary. He just acts so completely mentally ill, it's amazing. He even somehow affects not only the dress, but the postures, facial expressions and characteristics that make him appear to be genuinely mentally ill. Wow.Herzog's character is just so completely weird and obtuse and out of place in our culture that he is perfect here. Makes you wonder about other people you see walking around. Not hugely entertaining in terms of plot, but a real treat for someone who wants to be compelled by the film maker's art. Harmony Korine is way smarter than me and you, folks. And I think it's way cool he can get his hands on film equipment. He is pushing the envelope, which is a lot more than I can say for most directors. Safe is boring. Regard this film in the context of the first scene when Julien has his encounter with the "Pond Boy" and a plot emerges. What we see within the first two or three minutes is just astoundingly disturbing, and will clearly have consequences on the rest of Julien's life - all of their lives. Relate the rest of the film back to the first scene, and it's really rather sad. Everything that ensues has that hanging over it. You know that no matter what those people do, some day there will be a knock on the door and everything will unravel. Or will it? How could they be any more odd and troubled than they already are?