Julien Donkey-Boy

Theatrical Release Date: 1999 10 08 (USA)

UPC: 794043498824

Studio: New Line Home Video

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Adult Situations, Profanity, Sexual Situations]

Summary: In his second directorial effort, writer/director Harmony Korine embraces the hyper-realist aesthetic of Lars Von Trier's Dogma 95 film movement, which mandates handheld photography using only available lighting, among other restrictions. As in the controversial Gummo (1997), Korine abandons traditional narrative for a series of vignettes about bizarre characters, in this case centered on Julien (Ewen Bremner), a schizophrenic who works in a school for the blind. Julien lives at home with his pregnant sister Pearl (Chloe Sevigny); his brother Chris (Evan Neumann), who wrestles in his spare time; and their violent father (Werner Herzog), who slaps his children around, hoses them down with water, and offers to pay Chris ten dollars to dress up in his late mother's clothes and dance. Eventually Julien escapes from his home and interacts with people on the street (some of whom, reportedly, were not professional actors and had no idea that Bremmer was an actor playing a scene). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Avant-garde / Exp

Awards: Best Director – Independent Spirit Awards Best Cinematography – Independent Spirit Awards

Features: Widescreen version of the film
2.0 Stereo Surround
English subtitles
Closed captions
Featurette: "The Confession of Julien Donkey-Boy"
Deleted scenes
Cast and crew filmographies
Theatrical trailer

Julien Donkey-Boy

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 03/20/2001

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: 2 PCM stereo

Runtime: 100 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Scene Selections
0. Scene Selections
0. Menu Group #1 with 20 chapter(s) covering 01:39:51
1. Turtle [4:15]
2. Home [6:11]
3. Working [4:53]
4. Be a Man [2:16]
5. Shopping [4:07]
6. Man on the Street [3:53]
7. Energy [3:52]
8. King Julien [4:03]
9. Winner [3:37]
10. Recreation [6:18]
11. Floss [6:22]
12. Another Poem [5:17]
13. Party [4:21]
14. Feet [3:28]
15. Serious [4:03]
16. Spinning and Service [7:23]
17. Julien Slaps [5:06]
18. On the Ice [6:55]
19. Emergency [9:43]
20. End Titles [3:41]

Brian J. Dillard

More exhausting than elucidative, the follow-up to Gummo finds writer/director Harmony Korine again mining his tropes of dysfunction, disease, and depravity. This time, however, he foregoes much of the surreal comedy and visual punch of the earlier film. With a title character loosely based on the director's own uncle, it's no surprise that Julien Donkey-Boy seems to have more sympathy for its protagonist than Gummo did for the majority of its hapless characters. Yet the endless badgering of Werner Herzog's gas mask-wearing father, the ceaseless procession of outre supporting characters, and the banal brutality of almost every interaction -- all these elements quickly grow tiresome. That's not to say the film is without its moments. In the title role, Trainspotting alum Ewen Bremner gives a fearless performance that sometimes even verges on goofy charm, while Chloe Sevigny exudes determined serenity in a series of pastoral and domestic interludes. The scene in which Sevigny's tender sister pretends to be Julien's mother, telephoning from beyond the grave, is as sad and amusing as it is strangely sweet. Yet too much of the 90 minutes between the shockeroo opening scene and the overwrought conclusion simply meanders, caught up in its own lackadaisical transgression. Despite Korine's adoption of the Dogma 95 manifesto and the input of some of that movement's leading lights (cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, editor Valdis Oskarsdottir), Julien Donkey-Boy proves as muddy visually as it does conceptually. Too little happens, what does happen is almost uniformly unpleasant, and all of it is filmed in deliberately ugly digital video. The result is a film that upholds its director's difficult reputation, but not the squalidly beautiful promise of his debut. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Will Oldham  Actor 
Cary Woods  Producer 
Scott Macaulay  Producer 
Robin O'Hara  Producer 
Harmony Korine  Director 
Harmony Korine  Screenwriter 
Ewen Bremner  Actor 
Chloë Sevigny  Actor 
Werner Herzog  Actor 
Evan Neumann  Actor 
Joyce Korine  Actor 
Chrissy Kobylak  Actor 
Alvin Law  Actor 

Country: USA