Gummo - The Cruel Reality Of Decay
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 Xenia, Ohio, after a devastating tornado, almost seems locked into a hellish period
00:21 where job prospects and aspirations are below zero as teenagers waste time killing cats
00:27 to sell to the local convenience store for some quick cash, pissing off the overpass
00:32 onto the cars below and huffing glue, reminiscing about people who moved out of town to better
00:37 horizons likely due to the lack of acceptance found within the true small town mentality.
00:43 This is Harmony Corrine's anxiety-inducing Gummo, a polarizing film with a dedicated
00:48 reputation for its mixture of disturbing content and also for Corrine's distinct observation
00:53 and humour. Gummo isn't quite a comedy, but Harmony Corrine's morbidly laced sense
00:58 of humour is apparent in scenes that are highlights of the absurdities in White Trash Americana.
01:04 Two young boys dressed as cowboys shoot cap guns at a boy dressed in bunny ears, screaming
01:09 about how he stinks of ass and piss before they rob him. It's the cowboy roleplay of
01:14 playgrounds taken to its extreme, verging on abusive. A young teen kills cats by lacing
01:20 tuna with glass to sell their carcasses for extra cash to support his dying grandmother,
01:25 a contrast between the horrific action of animal cruelty with the action of selflessness
01:29 in aiding his unwell grandmother. A bathtub filled with disgusting water becoming the
01:34 place where dinner is served. There's an irony in washing oneself with such filthy
01:39 water and the grotesque dinner is just the icing of the disgusting decaying cake.
01:44 Gummo isn't a pretty film. Gummo is often vulgar and clearly aims to distress and offend
01:50 viewers. In this manner it is clearly effective. Gummo is often considered a disturbing film
01:54 for a reason, not solely due to its scenes being gruesome in nature, but also because
01:59 Gummo is like a sensory bombardment. Home video footage of young adults bragging about
02:04 setting cats alight, eerie voiceovers detailing molestations, muggings and death, as well
02:10 as the mixture of black metal, dark ambient and ironically used pop song classics on the
02:15 film's soundtrack. Gummo aims to be overwhelming and it succeeds, capturing a sense of moralistic
02:21 decay within a poverty-stricken community. Within a series of vignettes and a loose narrative
02:27 focusing on two young teenagers, Tumblr and Solomon, as they make money collecting dead
02:32 cats, Gummo captures a world that feels extreme, yet believable. With a lack of opportunities
02:37 for this community, they fulfil their time with anything that comes to mind. From the
02:42 instant gratification of glue sniffing, to the showcase of one's own supposed strength
02:46 by drunkenly wrestling with a chair. While plenty of the actions portrayed within Gummo
02:51 are horrendous, not everybody here is a bad person. Three sisters who lose their cat,
02:56 peculiarly named Footfoot, stick together like glue and demonstrate a kindness towards
03:01 each other, as well as a trust in the people around them. This unfortunately means they
03:06 are taken advantage of as a man offers to find their cat with them, but in actuality
03:10 he attempts to sexually assault one of the sisters. While the characters in Gummo might
03:15 not all be maliciously inclined, with self-serving ulterior motives, within the world of Gummo
03:20 those kind of characters are likely to become victims of disturbing fates.
03:25 This is reinforced via the diagnosis of breast cancer for a young woman. During her time
03:29 in a junkyard, making out with another teenager, he tells her she has a lump in her breast.
03:35 Towards Gummo's conclusion, the worst is confirmed, the young woman providing an upsetting monologue
03:40 regarding how the amputation of her breast will hurt her chances for love in the future.
03:45 It's likely such an upsetting monologue because it voices a genuine concern for breast cancer
03:50 survivors. Will future partners turn away? It's this sense of isolation and alienation
03:55 that surviving an awful ordeal could create more distance between her and other people
04:00 that makes this scene so challenging to watch. It's bitterly poignant and demonstrates
04:05 that any glimmer of hope found in Gummo is ready to be stomped on and murdered.
04:10 The reason that any sense of light is destroyed in Gummo is that Corinne's film aims to
04:14 capture decay in all its forms. The rotting carcasses of cats, the moralistic decay in
04:19 the cruel and exploitative actions of characters within the film, the decay of thought when
04:24 time is killed via aggressive fistfights dealt with a smile or by drunken arm wrestling.
04:30 Decay is everywhere in Gummo and the fact that Gummo feels as disturbing and resonant
04:34 as it does is because Gummo feels authentic. Those having grown up in small towns, having
04:39 moved out, may know people who have never stepped foot outside of that town. There is
04:44 a sense of believability in Gummo that is uncomfortable to confront and yet the film
04:48 is uncompromising, making us accept that if Gummo is authentic, then decay isn't just
04:54 in Gummo, decay is everywhere. In conclusion, Harmony Corinne's Gummo is
04:58 a challenging experimental drama that captures an authentic sense of decay and hopelessness
05:03 within a landscape that offers nothing in terms of opportunities or aspirations. Darkly
05:08 comic at times, horrific at others, the testimony of a young woman suffering of sexual assault
05:13 at the hands of her own father is chilling. There's something about Gummo that makes
05:17 it impossible not to think of once having seen it, cementing Harmony Corinne as an influential
05:23 and cult figure within art house cinema.
05:25 [music]