Ewen Bremner, Chloë Sevigny, Werner Herzog

Flashing a mouthful of fake gold teeth, Julien (Ewen Bremner) wanders the streets of New York City, mumbling nonsensical syllables to himself. He tries to avoid the abuse of his sadistic drunken gas-m...( read more  read more... )ask-wearing father (German director Werner Herzog). He cracks a young boy’s head open with a rock. He befriends a blind figure skater. He wears a bra and underwear as he wrestles with his younger brother. And his sister, Pearl (Chloë Sevigny), is pregnant--with Julien’s child.

Flixster Users

73% liked it

5,040 ratings

Critics

19% liked it

31 critics

R, 1 hr. 34 min.

Directed by: Harmony Korine

Release Date: October 15, 1999

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DVD Release Date: March 20, 2001

Stats: 342 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (342)


  • September 29, 2009
    A little pretentious I think but very entertaining! Bremner & Herzog made it for me with their fantastic performances. I just wish it concentrated more on character than on fancy camera work, as beautiful as it was, sometimes it was a bit headache inducing. Watch as a piece of ar...( read more)t rather than a movie. Still can?t stop singing 'I'm a black albino straight from Alabama'! PS. It?s is not a Dogme film as it depicts a murder which is against the 2nd rule of the Dogme95 manifesto!
  • August 25, 2008
    The film is purposefully difficult. After all I can imagine it being pretty impossible to display cinematically the effects of schizophrenia, no matter how good a performance. There is a great performance from the whole cast, I especially enjoyed Herzog's bizarre father figure. T...( read more)here's n real plot and the Dogma 95 aspects hinder rather than help this film. I did enjoy the cinematography which was especially grainy and filled with noise, it added a very dark and distant tone. Weird and interesting but never engaging or ground breaking.
  • October 18, 2009
    looks extremely unordinary
  • August 18, 2009
    "I'm a black albino, straight from Alabama" -Victor Varnado

    Harmony based the main character on an uncle of his who was a schizophrenic. This is pretty dark, even for Korine. Dysfunction is the name of the game. Here's a rundown: Ewen Bremmer as a shizo son with gold fronts...( read more), Werner Hezog as a father who chugs cough syrup out of a shoe and hurls abuse at his kids, Evan Neumann as a son who is constantly berated by his father who also likes beating up garbage cans, and Chloe Sevingy as a pregnant daughter with a fucked up back story of her own. This film was released with the Dogme '95 seal of approval, although at times it deviates from the guidelines.
  • July 23, 2009
    few good sequences, but seriously.... it was boring. No, i dont care what you think, I m not pretending to like that movie just because I want to seduce some kind of intellectual movie fans. But you re right, the actors are good, and the whole dogma (is it ?) fake shitty esthetis...( read more)m for once was a good idea... and if you want to talk about realism, I saw better documentaries about "skyzophrenia"... but maybe its just a matter of taste.
  • July 12, 2009
    I love being disturbed by movies, really, and I love good performances, which this film had only good performances, and I loved the look and the whole Dogma style... I just don't like being bored and uninterested.
  • June 27, 2009
    excellently directed.

    "hello. this adolf. he ate my mothers titties. hes a good friend. he ate my mothers titties."
  • May 2, 2009
    Oh, wow. I was pretty put off to be honest. I liked what I saw, but I had a hard time stomaching the whole film. I'll have to try again sometime.
  • January 29, 2009
    Incredibly intense movie. Julien Donkey-Boy does not attempt to soften the edges around mental illness -- Julien is presented as a startling realistic schizophrenic. This is helped in part due to the way in which this film was shot -- some of it captured through hidden video came...( read more)ras in real-life situations.

    As for the story -- it's haunting. Although it's alluded to throughout the film, the final reveal at the end of the film is a weighty one. Definitely not a feel-good movie.

    There are some downsides, though. The film style -- although representative of the schizophrenia Julien suffers -- can be very tiresome at times. Werner Herzog, the abusive father in this film, doesn't quite work with the rest of the cast. He's just too damn funny.

    This is a very bold movie and definitely worth watching.
  • January 15, 2009
    beautiful cinematography

Critic Reviews


January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

It adds up to something, unlike a lot of movies where individual shots are sensational, but they add up to nothing. full review

View more Julien Donkey-Boy reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • tydea
    October 12, 2007
    "if I were so stupid, I would slap my own face."

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