Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Gummo 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 29, 2024

Harmony Korine's "Gummo" (1997) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include new program with Harmony Korine; archival program with Werner Herzog and Harmony Korine; remastered vintage trailer; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Spaghetti, milk, and chocolate.

Ohio is neither California nor Tennessee. Where am I heading with this statement? Well, if you have never been to Ohio, particularly rural Ohio, and while viewing Gummo you begin convincing yourself that what is shown in it is somehow reflective of rural Ohio, you are falling for a big lie. It is a lie concocted by Harmony Korine, who was born in California and raised in Tennessee, whose directorial debut, Gummo, is supposed to be a giant slice of reality extracted from rural Ohio.

Actually, I must immediately correct myself and state that I am not entirely sure whether Gummo was meant to be an authentic film.

It appears that Gummo was meant to be many different things, and the one that makes the most sense to me is an experimental project of the kind a radical filmmaker like Jean-Luc Godard would have put together. One similar experimental project Godard directed is Weekend in which the real and the surreal are merged in such an odd manner that it is quite interesting to observe its motley crew of irrational characters, virtually all of which can easily be described as genuine cuckoos. Predictably, Weekend is loaded with Godardian politics too, so it is also fun going through their biases and seeing how time has exposed the ridiculousness of their messaging. However, while Gummo has the cuckoos it does not have the politics, which instantly makes it a very odd relative of Weekend.

The absence of something else pushes Gummo even further away and into a corner where no similar films exist. Gummo does not have the cheekiness required for a film like it to connect with its audience and make it care about its characters and their strangeness. Indeed, it behaves like a neutral observer that has accidentally inserted itself into the reality of these characters and started collecting random pieces of it, hoping that later they can be arranged into a coherent, interesting story. But they do not, so viewing Gummo feels like enduring Korine’s struggle to make something out of nothing.

What type of material do these random pieces feature? In one of these pieces, teenage friends Solomon (Jacob Reynolds) and Tummler (Nick Sutton), the undisputed stars of Gummo, flog a dead cat with a stick. In another, several drunk rednecks wrestle with an old chair. In another, two bored girls place duct tape on their nipples and then quickly remove it to make them harder. And in another, two skinheads beat each other up for no apparent reason. What is the common thread? I do not know. However, I do know that all of this combined is not in any way reflective of the reality of rural Ohio.

A lot of people who have seen Gummo and dislike it with a passion think that it is a vile exploitation film pretending to be something else. I have seen a lot of exploitation films over the years and enjoyed many of them because the effective ones almost always have an interesting sense of humor. They are cinematic kamikazes that go down in flames while poking the prudes with a big stick. Gummo self-destructs but it bores to tears, so if it is an exploitation film, it is a very, very ineffective one.

The soundtrack is predictably odd. It mixes classic tracks from Buddy Holly (“Everyday”), Roy Orbison (“Crying”), and Madonna (“Like a Prayer”) with deep rarities from controversial black metal acts like Bathory (“Equimanthorn”) and Burzum (“Rundgang um die Transzendentale Saule der Singularitat”).

Gummo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criteiron's release of Gummo is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray disc is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray disc is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values of this content.

Screencaptures #1-21 are from the Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #23-31 are from the 4K Blu-ray.

The release introduces a new 4K makeover of Gummo which was supervised and approved by Harmony Korine. In native 4K, the Gummo can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I viewed it in its entirety with Dolby Vision and the later spent time with the 1080p presentaiton on the Blu-ray.

The quality of the visuals is quite incredible. Outdoor footage with plenty of natural light and indoor footage with different types of shadows look equally impressive. Obviously, the tape footage looks different, but this is intentional. Color reproduction and balance are fantastic, so the entire film has a wonderful, very lush organic appearance, too. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. Image stability is outstanding. I went back and forth between the native 4K and 1080p presentations to see how the Dolby Vision grade helps the former. The darker indoor footage looks terrific, never revealing even a whiff of flattening or crushing. However, I was most impressed with the outdoor footage because it had a very rich yet natural appearance. On the Blu-ray, the same footage again looks great, but with the lushness toned down just a tiny bit. I would not say that there are striking discrepancies in terms of delineation, sharpness, and depth. Fluidity is excellent in native 4K and 1080p.

Gummo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Even though Gummo has a wild soundtrack that mixes incredibly diverse music, its dynamic diversity is not impressive. Why? Because the soundtrack allows for various organic sounds and noises to be just as prominent as the music, which is why I think everything was brought together made to be as coherent as possible. If only the music was used to create memorable contrasts, I think that dynamic intensity would have been very different. The narration and all exchanges are very easy to follow.

Gummo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Bonus Features - there are no bonus features on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Harmony Korine on "Gummo" - in this exclusive new program, Harmony Korine discusses his directorial debut and how his experience of growing up in Tennessee is reflected in it. In English, not subtitled. (12 min).

• Werner Herzog and Harmony Korine - in this archival program, Werner Herzog, a big supporter of Gummo, talks to Harmony Korine about his directorial debut. The program was shot after a screening of Gummoat the Telluride Film Festival in 1997. In English, not subtitled. (55 min).

• Split Screen: Projections: "Harmony Korine" - presented here is an episode of Split Screen: Projections, a series of interviews about filmmaking, in which John Pierson speaks with Harmony Korine. The episode was produced in 2000. In English, not subtitled. (29 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a remastered vintage trailer for Gummo, which was edited by filmmaker, photographer, and video director Mark Romanek. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by film critic Carlos Aguilar and an appreciation by filmmaker Hype Williams, as well as technical credits.

Gummo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gummo is a mish-mash of strange ideas and visuals that somehow made perfect sense to its creator, Harmony Korine. I saw it a long time ago and never forgot that sequence where Solomon slowly eats cheap spaghetti with milk and chocolate while taking a bath. The whole thing is hilarious, disgusting, and really, really bizarre. It is easy to tell that Korine wanted the entire film to be like it, but there is a lot of material in it that just isn't as effective and looks plain terrible. Criterion's upcoming combo pack introduces a fabulous new 4K makeover of the film that looks great on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray.