Harmony Korine explains the ‘vibes’ and ‘vapors’ of his hallucinatory ‘Aggro Dr1ft’ | Entertainment News

TORONTO — Few recent movies inspire the question “What am I looking at?” quite as strongly as Harmony Korine’s new “Aggro Dr1ft.” Filmed with thermal vision cameras and undergoing extensive post-production work involving both visual effects and artificial intelligence, the movie follows a Miami hit man (Jordi Molla) as he alternates between a quietly loving life at home with his wife and family and the brutal realities of his job. But that story is told with a looping, repetitive style and otherworldly visuals that can cause viewers to zone out and drift away. (Or worse: Fainting and nausea were reported at some screenings.)

Maybe don’t call it a movie at all. Along with premiering “Aggro Dr1ft” at film festivals in Venice, Toronto and New York, Korine has been announcing his new Miami-based company, EDGLRD, a multidisciplinary, multimedia outfit that will be involved in a wide range of creative endeavors. (That it’s even called “Edgelord” may or may not be a joke upon the very people it’s intended to appeal to.)

The technology involved in creating “Aggro Dr1ft” allows it to be constantly updated and altered, so the version that screens at the upcoming New York Film Festival will have some different images than what has already screened at Venice and Toronto.

Korine, still boyish at age 50, even as his hair is more gray than not, burst upon the ’90s filmmaking scene as the screenwriter of the controversial “Kids” and then as the director of “Gummo” and “Julien Donkey-Boy.” After some years away and a reset, he returned with a bracing run of unpredictable, inventive features that challenged audiences and pushed cultural boundaries: “Mister Lonely,” “Trash Humpers,” the commercial breakthrough of “Spring Breakers” and “The Beach Bum.”

Korine has always had a hand in other creative endeavors, which coalesce into something of a unified worldview that mixes an outsider’s love of pop culture, prankish humor and thoughtful artistic explorations. An exhibition of paintings by Korine inspired by the thermal imagery of “Aggro Dr1ft” will be on display at L.A.’s Hauser & Wirth gallery from Sept 15 through Jan. 14.

As a photographer, he has shot campaigns for clients such as Gucci and Kim Kardashian’s Skims swimwear line, the latter of which featured the reality star-entrepreneur amid bikini-clad models with space alien heads.

Rapper Travis Scott also appears in “Aggro Dr1ft,” and Korine recently directed segments of Scott’s “Circus Maximus” project, including performance footage at the ancient amphitheater of Pompeii, alongside other filmmakers such as Gaspar Noé and Nicolas Winding Refn.

When “Aggro Dr1ft” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Korine and his EDGLRD collaborators did their press conference wearing 3D-printed masks inspired by the creature effects in the movie. Korine walked the red carpet with his wife, Rachel Korine, and the oldest of their three children, 14-year-old Lefty Korine.

“She was like, what the f— is this?” Korine said with the confused wonder of the typical parent of a teenager. “I don’t even know if she’d ever seen any of my movies before.”

After the midnight Toronto screening of “Aggro Dr1ft,” Korine came out in another of the 3D-printed masks for the Q&A, working the room like a talented showman and leaving the dazed audience equal parts delighted and bewildered.

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TORONTO — Few recent movies inspire the question “What am I looking at?” quite as strongly as Harmony Korine’s new “Aggro Dr1ft.” Filmed with thermal vision cameras and undergoing extensive post-production work involving both visual effects and artificial intelligence, the movie follows a Miami hit man (Jordi Molla) as he alternates between a quietly loving life at home with his wife and family and the brutal realities of his job. But that story is told with a looping, repetitive style and otherworldly visuals that can cause viewers to zone out and drift away. (Or worse: Fainting and nausea were reported at some screenings.)

Maybe don’t call it a movie at all. Along with premiering “Aggro Dr1ft” at film festivals in Venice, Toronto and New York, Korine has been announcing his new Miami-based company, EDGLRD, a multidisciplinary, multimedia outfit that will be involved in a wide range of creative endeavors. (That it’s even called “Edgelord” may or may not be a joke upon the very people it’s intended to appeal to.)

The technology involved in creating “Aggro Dr1ft” allows it to be constantly updated and altered, so the version that screens at the upcoming New York Film Festival will have some different images than what has already screened at Venice and Toronto.

Korine, still boyish at age 50, even as his hair is more gray than not, burst upon the ’90s filmmaking scene as the screenwriter of the controversial “Kids” and then as the director of “Gummo” and “Julien Donkey-Boy.” After some years away and a reset, he returned with a bracing run of unpredictable, inventive features that challenged audiences and pushed cultural boundaries: “Mister Lonely,” “Trash Humpers,” the commercial breakthrough of “Spring Breakers” and “The Beach Bum.”

Korine has always had a hand in other creative endeavors, which coalesce into something of a unified worldview that mixes an outsider’s love of pop culture, prankish humor and thoughtful artistic explorations. An exhibition of paintings by Korine inspired by the thermal imagery of “Aggro Dr1ft” will be on display at L.A.’s Hauser & Wirth gallery from Sept 15 through Jan. 14.

As a photographer, he has shot campaigns for clients such as Gucci and Kim Kardashian’s Skims swimwear line, the latter of which featured the reality star-entrepreneur amid bikini-clad models with space alien heads.

Rapper Travis Scott also appears in “Aggro Dr1ft,” and Korine recently directed segments of Scott’s “Circus Maximus” project, including performance footage at the ancient amphitheater of Pompeii, alongside other filmmakers such as Gaspar Noé and Nicolas Winding Refn.

When “Aggro Dr1ft” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Korine and his EDGLRD collaborators did their press conference wearing 3D-printed masks inspired by the creature effects in the movie. Korine walked the red carpet with his wife, Rachel Korine, and the oldest of their three children, 14-year-old Lefty Korine.

“She was like, what the f— is this?” Korine said with the confused wonder of the typical parent of a teenager. “I don’t even know if she’d ever seen any of my movies before.”

After the midnight Toronto screening of “Aggro Dr1ft,” Korine came out in another of the 3D-printed masks for the Q&A, working the room like a talented showman and leaving the dazed audience equal parts delighted and bewildered.

…continued

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