Mister Lonely 2008

Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune: Korine falls so thoroughly in love with many of his images, including his opening shot, that he stretches them out in hypnotic slow motion. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The film is pretty ramshackle, full of obvious group improvisations that fail to spark and an overdose of bathos. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: In contrast to the grimy and occasionally grotesque Gummo (1997) and Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), this drama has a more gentle, Felliniesque feel. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The film doesn't work, and indeed seems to have no clear idea of what its job is, and yet (sigh) there is the temptation to forgive its trespasses simply because it is utterly, if pointlessly, original. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Sporadically poetic but largely a chore to sit through. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Mister Lonely has its moments of wonder and beauty, but the film is obscure by design, and meant to appeal to those who favor the alternative canon of directing greats. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: In its slightly comical, somewhat mordant, and completely ambient way, Mister Lonely wonders about the perils of idol worship, the way people can hand their entire selves over to a religion, be it Catholicism or celebrity. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: While it's full of arresting, indelible images, Mr. Lonely remains mostly on the level of abstraction. You get it but you don't always feel it. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: After Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy, the director Harmony Korine evinces a kind of integrity -- he tries never to entertain, and lo, he succeeds. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A movie that goes to extraordinary lengths to say ordinary things. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Harmony Korine's films thrive on uncertain ground. Exiting the theater, you're never more aware that ten people can sit next to each other but see ten different films. Read more

Jim Ridley, L.A. Weekly: Movies tell the same stories over and over, but I know of only one that evokes mourned innocence in just a three-minute slow-motion shot of a Michael Jackson impersonator and a stuffed monkey aboard a clown bike. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: In this fairy-tale of arrested development, Korine has created his most mature movie yet. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Occasionally there is a striking image or a moment of wounded sweetness, but mainly the film provides ample proof that it's possible to be bizarre and boring at the same time. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: I will end with the faint praise of Mister Lonely as the least offensive of the works in the Korine canon. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: [Harmony] Korine hasn't released a feature film in nine years, and his new Mister Lonely is richer and sweeter than anything he's ever made. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Like Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, the film has overarching problems yet contains diamonds of clarity and inspiration that you won't find in any dozen movies. You'll have to mine for those diamonds, though. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Philip Marchand, Toronto Star: Korine has found an evocative subject, but he remains entirely too cavalier in this attitude towards narrative coherence. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Too long, not nearly as funny as it hopes, and some plot elements (what's with the sheep?) are extraneous to the improvised mood. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Korine's most lavishly produced pic to date begins as a sweet-tempered tale of social misfits-turned-celebrity impersonators, but falls short of its ambition to say something meaningful about the obsessive nature of celebrity culture. Read more

Jim Ridley, Village Voice: Movies tell the same stories over and over, but I know of only one that evokes mourned innocence in just a three-minute shot of a clown bike. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: A visually and conceptually mesmerizing and mystical movie. Read more