Mister Lonely
Mister Lonely | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Harmony Korine |
Written by | Harmony Korine Avi Korine |
Produced by | Harmony Korine Nadja Romain Adam Bohling |
Starring | Diego Luna Samantha Morton Denis Lavant Werner Herzog James Fox Anita Pallenberg |
Cinematography | Marcel Zyskind |
Edited by | Valdís Óskarsdóttir Paul Zucker |
Music by | Jason "Spaceman" Pierce Sun City Girls |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | IFC First Take(United States)[1] Tartan Films(United Kingdom) Shellac Distribution(France) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 112 minutes[2] |
Countries | United Kingdom France Ireland United States |
Languages | English French |
Budget | $8.2 million[3] |
Box office | $393,813 |
Mister Lonelyis a 2007comedy filmdirected byHarmony Korineand co-written with his brother Avi Korine. It features anensemble castof international actors, includingDiego Luna,Samantha Morton,Denis Lavant,Werner Herzog,James Fox,Anita PallenbergandLeos Carax.The film follows aMichael Jacksonlook-alike joining a commune filled with other impersonators as they build a stage to attract people to see them perform.Mister Lonelygarnered mixed reviews from critics and was abox-office bomb,grossing $393,813 against an $8.2 million budget.
Plot
[edit]A young man living inParisscratches out a living as aMichael Jacksonlook-alike, dancing on the streets, public parks, tourist spots and trade shows. During a show in a home for the elderly, he meets aMarilyn Monroeimpersonator. Haunted by her angelic beauty, he follows her to a commune in theScottish Highlands,joining her husbandCharlie Chaplin,and her daughterShirley Temple.Here, thePope,Elizabeth II,Madonna,James Dean,and other impersonators build a stage in the hope that the world will visit and watch them perform.
Asubplotconcerns aconventin what seems to be adeveloping country.One of the nuns survives a fall from an airplane during a mission to deliver food to villages, and discovers that if you are true of heart, God will protect you. All the nuns then begin jumping from planes to show that they are true of heart and protected by God.[4]
Cast
[edit]- Diego LunaasMichael Jackson
- Samantha MortonasMarilyn Monroe
- Denis LavantasCharlie Chaplin
- Werner Herzogas Father Umbrillo
- James FoxasThe Pope
- Anita PallenbergasThe Queen
- Melita Morgan asMadonna
- Jason PennycookeasSammy Davis, Jr.
- Esmé Creed-MilesasShirley Temple
- Leos Caraxas Renard
- Britta Gartner as Nun
- Alisa Grace Greaves as Autograph girl
- Quentin Grosset as Le Petit Garçon
- Rachel KorineasLittle Red Riding Hood
- Joseph MorganasJames Dean
- Richard StrangeasAbraham Lincoln
- Daniel Rovai, Mal Whiteley, and Nigel Cooper asThe Three Stooges:Moe Howard,Larry Fine,andCurly Howard
- Michael-Joel StuartasBuckwheat
- David Blaineas Priest 2
- Angel Morgan as Various roles
Development
[edit]Korine conceived of a film about impersonators as a way to explore what he called "the obsessive nature" of the impersonator personality. Rather than mocking or belittling impersonation, Korine claims to have felt a "fondness and empathy" for impersonators since childhood.[5]
Korine came up with the idea for the film after the release ofJulien Donkey-Boy,but his drug use and general disillusionment (along with fund-raising difficulties) prolonged the process. In a February 2007 interview withScreen International,he said: "I'd been making movies since I was virtually a kid, and it had always come very easily. At a certain point after the last movie, I started to have this general disconnect from things. I was really miserable with where I was. I began to lose sight of things and people started to become more and more distant. I was burnt out, movies were what I always loved in life and I started to not care. I went deeper and deeper into a dark place and to be honest movies were the last thing I was thinking about – I didn't know if I was going to be alive. My dream was to evaporate. I was unhealthy. Whatever happened during that time, and I won't go into the details, maybe it was something I needed to go through."[3]In a 2003 interview with theNew York Post,former girlfriendChloë Sevignyrevealed that the formerlystraight edgeKorine had become addicted toheroinandmethadonewhile they were together, with Korine's substance abuse issues contributing to the end of their relationship.[6]
Richard Strange, who playsAbraham Lincoln,claimed that Korine often changed scenes and lines as filming progressed.[7]
Production
[edit]While shooting the commune scenes, the cast and crew lived together in a Scottish castle (Duncraig Castle, Plockton), and many of the actors remained in their impersonated characters for all or part of the time they were off-camera. ActorDenis Lavanteven bathed with his shoes on, as his impersonated characterCharlie Chaplinwas said to do.
To film the secondary storyline, Korine worked with real skydiving nuns fromSpain,sometimes in temperatures of 48 °C (120 °F).[5]Those scenes were filmed in Panama (as specified in the movie's credits).
Soundtrack
[edit]Half of the music was written and performed bySun City Girls,with the other half being created bySpiritualizedfrontman,Jason "Spaceman" Pierce.[8]
- "Michael's Opening" (dialogue)
- Spank Rock– "Backyard Betty"
- Jason Spaceman– "Blues 1"
- Jason Spaceman – "Blues 2 (Intro)"
- Sun City Girls– "3D Girls"
- Jason Spaceman – "Panama 1"
- Sun City Girls – "Spook"
- Jason Spaceman – "Garden Walk"
- Sun City Girls – "Steppe Spiritual"
- Jason Spaceman – "Pope in the Bath"
- Daniel Rovai – "Red River Valley"
- "Nun's Prayer" (dialogue)
- Sun City Girls – "Mr. Lonely Viola"
- Sun City Girls – "Beryl Scepter"
- "Red Riding Hood's Hangman" (dialogue)
- Jason Spaceman – "Stooges Harmonica"
- "Father Umbrillo's Broken Nation"
- Jason Spaceman – "Musicbox Underwater"
- Sun City Girls – "Circus Theme"
- Sun City Girls – "Vine Street Piano"
- Jason Spaceman – "Paris Beach"
- Sun City Girls – "Farewell"
- Angel Morgan – "Gold Dust"
- Aphex Twin– "Btoum-Roumada"
The movie also features "13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round the Side of Your Bed" byA Silver Mt. ZionandBobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely" (after which the film is titled), though neither song is included on the soundtrack. The Maid Freed From the Gallows by John Jacob Niles. My Life by Iris Dement.
Reception
[edit]Korine's largest film to date with a budget of $8.2 million,[3]Mister Lonelyearned $386,915 in its first nine months[9]— $167,396 in the United States and $219,519 in other territories.[9]
On thereview aggregatorwebsiteRotten Tomatoes,47% of 73 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Less biting or offensive than Korine's earlier works, this frustratingly dull film still maintains the director's trademark odd beauty."[10]Metacritic,which uses aweighted average,assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[11]
A.O. ScottofThe New York Timespraised Luna and Morton for performing "without cuteness or camp" in their roles and Korine's "richly colored, wide-frame compositions" throughout the film but gave note that the incoherent story will cause viewers to find his filmmaking style "frustratingly hermetic" and "morbidly preoccupied" with "expressive [power of] pictures than [in] conventional psychology." He concluded: "And yet" Mister Lonely, "self-enclosed though it may be, nonetheless demonstrates that Mr. Korine, who showed his ability to shock and repel in earlier films, also has the power to touch, to unsettle and to charm. This is undoubtedly a small movie, but it's also more than that: it's a small, imperfect world."[12]Marjorie Baumgarten ofThe Austin Chroniclecalled the movie "Korine's most accessible as a director", noting that it featured "stirring and unforgettable" characters and imagery that "go[es] from poignant to comic and back again" when following the impersonators and the nuns, concluding that: "What does it all mean? I'm not sure. But ye of little faith – in either God's abiding power or one's own self-image – seem destined to come crashing down."[13]Pastecontributor Alissa Wilkinson wrote: "Well-acted and at times funny, the imaginative premise dances around a great potential for profundity. Unfortunately, it succumbs to a spectacularly simplistic ending that will leave viewers empty and annoyed. Besotted with its own playfulness,Mister Lonelygives off the distinct impression that it was a lot more fun to make than it is to watch. "[14]
Jeremiah Kipp ofSlant Magazinewas initially positive during the film's "vaudevillian" opening for maintaining the "free-form narrative style" of Korine's previous efforts, but felt the Scottish Isle scenes came across like a continuous "parade of skits". He admitted that Korine was still "one of the most innovative and surprising new voices in American cinema", concluding that: "As a champion for the beautiful and the strange, I'll take bottom-shelf Korine over just about anything else currently playing in theaters."[15]Carina Chocano of theLos Angeles Timescommended Luna and Morton for being "enormously likable and engrossing" in their roles and the nuns' tale for having a "straightforward, realistic quality" to it, but felt the rest of the film lacked "emotional involvement" and "sustained attention" during the commune scenes, concluding that "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."[16]Roger Ebertof theChicago Sun-Timeswrote that: "Harmony Korine's" Mister Lonely "is an odd, desperate film, lost in its own audacity, and yet there are passages of surreal beauty and preposterous invention that I have to admire. 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."[17]
References
[edit]- ^ab"Mister Lonely (2007)".AFI Catalog of Feature Films.RetrievedFebruary 14,2021.
- ^"MISTER LONELY(15) ".British Board of Film Classification.RetrievedApril 13,2013.
- ^abc"Screen International Magazine," Only The Lonely "by Fionnuala Halligan, Feb 2, 2007 p34–35"(PDF).
- ^"Harmony-Korine.com – News".RetrievedDecember 27,2006.
- ^abBishop, Richard."Harmony Korine".Bomb.Archived fromthe originalon August 12, 2011.RetrievedAugust 3,2011.
- ^"Harmony-Korine.com. Interviews & Articles".Archived fromthe originalon May 3, 2008.
- ^Richard Strange (May 1, 2008).Highland Flings.ARTINFO.RetrievedMay 14,2008.
- ^"Mister Lonely Soundtrack".IMDB.com.
- ^ab"Mister Lonely (2008)".Box Office Mojo.RetrievedFebruary 12,2009.
- ^"Mister Lonely".Rotten Tomatoes.Fandango Media.RetrievedOctober 7,2021.
- ^"Mister Lonely".Metacritic.Fandom, Inc.RetrievedAugust 28,2020.
- ^Scott, A.O.(May 2, 2008)."Marilyn Monroe Returns Home to Her Husband, Charlie Chaplin".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on February 5, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 26,2022.
- ^Baumgarten, Marjorie (June 6, 2008)."Mister Lonely - Movie Review".The Austin Chronicle.Archivedfrom the original on February 22, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 22,2022.
- ^Wilkinson, Alissa (April 30, 2008)."Mister Lonely".Paste.Wolfgang's Vault.Archivedfrom the original on February 26, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 26,2022.
- ^Kipp, Jeremiah (April 24, 2008)."Review: Mister Lonely".Slant Magazine.Archivedfrom the original on February 21, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 22,2022.
- ^Chocano, Carina (May 9, 2008)."'Mr. Lonely'".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on February 26, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 26,2022.
- ^Ebert, Roger(May 22, 2008)."When Michael Met Marilyn..."Chicago Sun-Times.Archivedfrom the original on February 22, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 22,2022– viaRogerEbert.com.
External links
[edit]- 2007 films
- 2007 comedy-drama films
- 2000s American films
- 2000s British films
- 2000s French films
- American comedy-drama films
- American independent films
- British comedy-drama films
- British independent films
- Cultural depictions of Charlie Chaplin
- Depictions of Elizabeth II on film
- Cultural depictions of James Dean
- Cultural depictions of Madonna
- Cultural depictions of Michael Jackson
- Cultural depictions of Sammy Davis Jr.
- Cultural depictions of Shirley Temple
- English-language French films
- Fictional depictions of Abraham Lincoln in film
- Film4 Productions films
- Films about entertainers
- Films directed by Harmony Korine
- Films set in Paris
- Films shot in Highland (council area)
- Films shot in Panama
- Films shot in Paris
- Films with screenplays by Harmony Korine
- French comedy-drama films
- French independent films
- Irish independent films