Although Harmony Korine is considered an important filmmaker and an auteur director in his own right, his debut is a tough hang and only reserved for those with a strong stomach for misery and the grotesque.

| Oct 29, 2024

Harrowing as its glimpses of economic and psychological ruin are, Gummo doesn’t merely wallow in its characters’ dire straits.

| Oct 21, 2024

The purpose of the film is seemingly to expose movie goers to an existence that they may otherwise pretend does not exist, while at the same time eliciting a reaction of discomfort. In that arena its a resounding success...

| Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 17, 2024

A tragic satire – blackly funny, often disturbing, unthinkably sad.

| May 24, 2022

There are moments of genuine spectacle, but the ongoing freakshow feels, like Kids, exploitative...

| Dec 9, 2021

This makes it impossible to measure "Gummo" using the traditional quality metrics, and leaves us simply asking whether it works or does not. It works.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 13, 2020

A film of challenge that requires a viewer to go beyond passive viewing into very actively experiencing the film.

| Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 9, 2020

If only the director didn't see the rest of humanity as found art, and himself as its appraisor!

| Apr 2, 2019

Somehow, often within a single scene or image, [Gummo] manages to be simultaneously indefensible, dismissible, exploitive, heartbreaking and completely revivifying.

| Mar 27, 2019

Like a kid acting up for attention, the wise-ass Korine wants desperately to be in your face - to offend and provoke. And he does a damn good job getting his way. If for no other reason, "Gummo" deserves to be seen.

| Jan 7, 2019

Gummo is a towering achievement largely because it is that metaphorical snuff film.

| Jan 7, 2019

After his persuasively disturbing screenplay for Larry Clark's Kids, Harmony Korine 's Gummo comes as a disappointment.

| Jan 7, 2019

The unyielding and uncomfortable manner in which Gummo grapples with human diversity has also allowed it to linger long in the memory.

| Jan 7, 2019

Is the perspective of youth in this country really so devoid of significance, and their existence so septic? These are good questions, although "Gummo" provides neither answer nor solution, nor even thematic cohesion.

| Jan 7, 2019

The point of all this nihilism and grotesqueness? You got me.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Jan 7, 2019

Different viewers might find different portions worthy of anything from zero to four stars, but anyone with a faint heart or weak stomach should stay miles away from it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 7, 2019

Take away the shock value, and there isn't much there: just a stylistically promising student film peddling bargain-basement surreal nihilism that, stretched over 90 minutes, grows awfully tedious.

| Jan 7, 2019

Virtually plotless, the movie does its best to be offensive, but not in the service of any particular theme.

| Jan 7, 2019

Instead, [Gummo is] a gaudy, reckless collage of perverse images that lack any value.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Jan 7, 2019

A close-up portrait of disaffected youth in Middle America, Gummo is one of the most repellent cinematic efforts in recent memory.

Full Review | Jan 7, 2019