MovieChat Forums > Gummo (1997) Discussion > Ooh boy, I HATED this...

Ooh boy, I HATED this...

posted 9 years ago by fyfytj
20 replies | jump to latest

What a piece of incoherent, pointless garbage! There's no plot to speak of, and way too many "characters" (probably just regular people the director asked to film) and scenes that neither go anywhere nor amount to anything whatsoever. The movie is trying way too hard to be "shocking" for its own sake and it all just feels like a compilation of white trash home videos thrown together for no reason.

This waste if a million dollars has no message, tells no story, and its constant attempt to be "disturbing" and "avant-garde" backfires, quite quickly becoming boring and exhausting to sit through. It will leave zero impact on me other than annoyance if I ever happen to be reminded of this piece of *beep* "movie".

[–] ljshorts 9 years ago

You'll learn eventually that plot is not always necessary in film.

I will say though that I can't even remotely understand why the budget was so high for this movie. I don't even think it was commercially marketed. I could have made this movie for a few hundred bucks, talent aside.

[–] fyfytj 9 years ago

I think a certain degree of plot is necessary for a film. Minimal plot is one thing, like the movie Kids for example. This is a film with no plot whatsoever, and when there is no plot to occupy the characters' time, there's nothing for them to do that would develop them. Because of this, it feels like, as I said in the original post, a series of pointless, boring (without fleshing out any characters, I can't get mentally invested in them or anything they do), and random activities filmed in order to pad out the running time.

But yes, the relatively high budget is a mystery.

[–] ljshorts 9 years ago

Well I suppose there was a very small degree of plot in each of the character's storylines. The boys had a job, the girls had a fight with a sex offender, and bunny-boy, well... you got me there. But I guess the overarching plot of the movie was in it's lack of said plot. To highlight the plot-less, dull lives of the townsfolk.

[–] fyfytj 9 years ago

Eh... in the same way a series of YouTube videos following random people around while random things happen to them is a "plot", which is to say, not a real plot. If this was meant as a mockumentary or something then the lack of structure would be more excusable. Either way you want to look at it, I didn't like this very much to say the least.

[–] [email protected] (1357) 2 months ago

Agreed,,I did not feel any investment in the characters at all..They didnt develop during the film, hence it being a very tedious film. I usually love a gritty and offbeat film and this couldve been it...But it just wasnt.

[–] Dare_Daniel 9 years ago

These butthurt comments on Gummo are the funniest things on this board.

Top 50 Favourite films http://www.imdb.com/list/t9JHDeBhWKQ/

[–] yajji 9 years ago

The biggest problem and most common complaint that people seem to have with this film is the lack of plot.

However, it always seems to come from people who enjoy plot-heavy movies. The sooner audiences learn that narrative or plot isn't always a marker of a good film, the more they will learn to enjoy cinema for what it is, not what it has become.

[–] fyfytj 9 years ago

A heavy plot indeed doesn't equal a good film, however, some semblance of a plot would be nice. And while film is, at its core, simply a visual medium that doesn't necessarily require a plot, I think there's a reason why film has become more narrative-focused over time, and that's because the novelty of moving pictures has worn off since the days of "Roundhay Garden Scene"; just showing things isn't interesting anymore, for the most part, when film can now be so much more thanks to plot narratives.

[–] MonoEnojado 9 years ago

I got the film and still didn't like it.

[–] x_The_Endless_Summer_x 9 years ago

The exact thing you're complaining about is explicitly outlined in a one sentence description of the movie on the main page: "Lonely residents of a tornado-stricken Ohio town wander the deserted landscape trying to fulfill their boring, nihilistic lives." Are you dim?

And you're complaining about "these types of movies" as if this had just been released. This came out 19 YEARS AGO. Get over yourself and maybe pay attention so you don't miss the OBVIOUS details about the movies you watch, durrrr.

[–] fyfytj 9 years ago

The descriptions aren’t written by the writer of the movie, are they? I’m pretty sure the people who write the movie IMDb movie descriptions have no part in the making of the movies they’re describing, so it’s not like their word is any more valid or correct than another viewer.

The characters don’t try to fulfill themselves. That would entail a certain amount of proactive action on their part(s), but they just kind of exist for the duration.

I’m only complaining about this garbage like it’s a movie I hated, with its year of release being irrelevant, and giving my opinion on it doesn’t make me a snob who needs to “get over myself” because I probably offended you and your movie tastes.

By the way, why do you quote “these types of movies” like I said that? I don’t remember saying it.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] lkillen 8 years ago

Methinks thou dost protest too much!

[–] Pongo000 8 years ago

A piece of *beep* (and yeah, I appreciate plotless movies). It seemed like a channel for Korine to play out his animal torture fantasies and his obvious resentment towards his white trash upbringing in Nashville. He does a piss poor job at his white trash caricatures, plenty of films out there that get this right. Guess this is the reason we don't see a lot of Korine films out there.

[–] X-Hal 8 years ago

This movie is garbage, but it's not because of a lack of a plot or story. It's because it is a study of garbage people with garbage minds and garbage souls.

I recently found a nice quote in "Atlas Shrugged" that gets the point across:

"Not since childhood, thought Dagny, had she felt that sense of exhilaration after witnessing the performance of a play - the sense that life held things worth reaching, not the sense of having studied some aspect of a sewer there had been no reason to see."

That's what's wrong with "Gummo." It's not deep, it's not art. It's a frakking sewer there's no reason to even look at.

Anyone who likes this movie should literally be hanged.

- - -

Whether they find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be considered an enemy planet.

[–] AP (5288) 7 years ago

I can understand people loving or hating this movie, but why do you think they should be killed over a film?

[–] Roabe (9) 6 years ago

"People who like what I don't like should be killed."

Have you considered psychiatric help?

[–] [email protected] (1357) 2 months ago

Oh wow thats a bit extreme lol. Come on now.

[–] Tommy711 (134) 3 months ago

It was more of a 'day in the life' kind of movie. For me I was waiting for something more gruesome to happen, so it was sort of edge-of-your-seat watching when it went from scene to scene. So I can appreciate that aspect. But I do enjoy a good plot in movies and there isn't really one, or a very feint one in the whole cat-killing business and they have competition etc. The other stuff is just side-quest stuff that doesn't involve the couple of 'main characters' (if you can call them that).

Unfortunately there wasn't really a big pay-off in the end, like how in 'This Is England' (spoiler ahead), there isn't a huge plot in the story, it's a little more of a day-in-the-life of the young boy, but it has a big, shocking 'pay-off' in the end.

Again, these movies have a place, especially if they have a pay-off, but the ones that have that calm-before-the-storm feel but don't have any kind of pay-off, I'm not a huge fan of them, so 4/10 from me.

[–] [email protected] (1357) 2 months ago

I agree with you. I love Indie films and seeing that Chloe was in it was a draw for me (I just finished the new movie with her in the Menendez brothers and she was great as usual).. I thought this film was gritty and realistic but after a full hour of no plot, no storyline , no direction, I became bored. The last half hour was tedious but I forged ahead.
It couldve been a great film. There were some unique characters..Some felt real and not actual actors but I could be wrong. The killing of the cats kinda repelled me but I know none were hurt in the making of the film but still it was disturbing. I know that was the point.
I wouldve liked to have seen more of their home life,,their parents and how they made income to live in a town devastated by the tornado. Instead it was filled with random moments that went nowhere which is why it fell flat for me.