The most hated man in art-house cinema

Fri, 07 May 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Moments after the lights came up on the premiere of Harmony Korine's "Trash Humpers" at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, a twentysomething in a jaunty chapeau jumped to his feet and thrust his hand in the air, eager to get off the first question.

"So, like, what was the point of the movie?" he asked.

Without missing a beat, Korine shot back, "What's the point of your hat?"

It was the perfect Harmony Korine answer: confrontational, slightly prickly, and utterly on point. Wherever Korine's name is found in print, some variation on the word "provoke" is not far off, as often as not in the company of charlatan, fraud and poseur. Since his first film as a director, 1997's "Gummo," each new Korine opus has been dogged by the same accusations, mainly that he is a shrewd no-talent with a knack for cozying up to genuine outsider artists -- Larry Clark, who directed Korine's screenplay for "Kids," or Werner Herzog, who appears on screen in Korine's "Julien Donkey-Boy" (1999) and "Mister Lonely" (2007) -- and soullessly copping their best moves.

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The most hated man in art-house cinema