Trash Humpers (2009)

By Thomas Flanagan (guest blogger)

As the film’s title so brazenly implies, Trash Humpers is truly a picture that pulls no punches. The drama, shot with a VHS camcorder, follows the exploits of four individuals shrouded in senior citizenesque masks as they proceed to perform activities honoring the movie’s namesake. Over an unspecified time period, the gang partakes in multiple acts of perversion and horror, including burglary, prostitution, corruption, kidnapping, and even murder (and yes, the film does deliver many scenes of the dry-humping of trash receptacles). For 78 minutes the viewer is treated to a nightmarish reality which appears to have been edited by a schizophrenic, and by the conclusion of the movie, the only certainty the audience is left with is that the individuals shooting this film are criminally deranged.

However, It is the desire to shock which hampers this film. Director Harmony Korine’s self-described portrait of the current “American landscape” revolves around a series of "park garages, back alleyways, and beautiful lamp posts that light up the gutter." It is this middle-class ambiance that Korine is able to so masterfully portray. Anyone familiar with Korine’s work can derive the “junior high” mood which is palpable in all of his movies. The sometimes barbarous need for carnal pleasures, the loneliness and isolation, and the frightening absurdity which plague cities like Pulaski, Tennessee; Brandon, Mississippi; Pork Van, Utah; Wampum, Pennsylvania; and Visalia, California (thank-you Platoon), Korine expertly captures these absurdities via motion picture and presents them in such a manner that repressed pre-teen memories are inevitably conjured. In the 1995 film KIDS (directed by Larry Clark, featuring a screenplay written by Korine), the audience is horrified as we follow an HIV-stricken teen in his quest to “de-virginize” as many adolescent girls as possible. However, it is impossible not to recall many of our own desires to experience intimacy at so early an age and our failure to understand sex’s gravity (it is implicit that none care to tangle with these issues under the veil of AIDS). 2002’s Ken Park more blatantly displays these “tween” primal urges, but importantly it captures the previously described mind-numbing insanity that is prevalent in American suburbs. It is also in this film, however, in which we see the errors of Korine’s excess.

Korine’s brilliance resides in the harnessing of his talents. In Chuck Klosterman’s book Fargo Rock City, Klosterman questions the fine line of guitar virtuosos and their contribution to the genre of heavy metal in terms of technical wizardry versus greatness. A guitarist such as Eddie Van Halen was capable of delivering fingertip-melting solos, but the band’s songs and production often favored David Lee Roth’s vocals. Thus, the listener was granted only snippets of the guitarist’s skill, leaving the captivated guitarphile yearning for more, while the casual music-lover was never subjected to the technical arrogance pervasive in a guitarist such as Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (as Klosterman used as an example). Diamond Dave’s “prison” is similar to the service director Larry Clark was able to provide for Korine. In KIDS we are treated to only two images of teen sexual encounters, both of which are more vulgar in the feelings they evoke than in their imagery. In Ken Park the union between Clark and Korine began to dissolve, and we see the consequence of that divorce as Ken Park devolves into a shock flick. Fast-forward to modern day, and we see the result of what Kramer from Seinfeld would call “unbridled enthusiasm.” Trash Humpers has the ability to shock the audience (a particularly disturbing scene involves the foursome’s interaction with what at first appears to be a mild-mannered church-going youth), but in his need to instill emotion, Korine leaves the audience numb to his musings. Throughout the film the gang elicits hyena-like shrieks to punctuate moments of abnormality. There is little doubt this was intended to showcase the horrifying nature of the group, however all it leaves is an irritated movie-goer. In addition between many of the stomach-turning scenes it appears as if Korine had no answer on how to bridge the gap, thus these moments are characterized by the peeping Toms performing mundane or played activities in which the viewer’s ears are unfortunately subjected to the piercing hyena cackles (how many scenes can you watch of masked individuals attempting to hump trash before it gets quite stale?). By going for broke, Korine plays his hand far too early and leaves the audience quite accustomed to his act. This is highly disappointing when viewed under the context of what Korine is capable of under the proper guidance.

For those familiar with Korine’s work, I would recommend this film. Despite the annoying feature characters and the multiple dead moments, when the film delivers, it is quite poignant. Korine’s own character’s treatise on his actions is particularly thought-provoking, and the “Three Little Devils” song interspersed at various points in the film adds a truly haunting aura. For those who are novices to Harmony Korine, perhaps a screening of previous directoral efforts Gummo or Julien Donkey-Boy would be necessary before trying to size-up this film.

Rating: 2 ½ stars