Harmony Korine Says He’s Ready to Return to Traditional Cinema After Declaring “Movies Suck”

With the emergence of his EDGLRD and the release of “Aggro Dr1ft” and “Baby Invasion,” we all thought Harmony Korine had more or less left cinema, or at least the current definition of cinema. He’s more interested in reinventing what a film can be, but critics have so far been unimpressed by Korine’s gaming-influenced output.

Yet, Korine has doubled down. It’s come to the point where he admits that he’s not even watching movies anymore, and would rather play video games and create unusual content — “movies suck.”

Well, guess what? Korine has now decided to backtrack.

In an interview with Douglas Greenwood, Korine — quite surprisingly — professes a desire to return to non-EDGLRD cinema, the type of narrative films that made him a household name.

I feel like making a movie again. There’s a lot of stuff in the works with animation and gaming engines but it’s been almost a decade since I made a film, something scripted. There’s sometimes images you can’t get out any other way.

Woah. That’s a total 180 from the same man who, less than two years ago, claimed he was “bored” by movies, “tired of formal stuff” that felt too much like part of the system.

In that same interview, Korine admits real excitement for Michael Bay’s upcoming “Skibidi Toilet” movie (“I’m actually excited for that”) and calls Bay’s “Pain & Gain” a “great movie,” which, duh, it obviously is — or maybe close to it, certainly the best film Bay has ever made. Any movie involving Dwayne Johnson going on a full-blown coke-induced paranoid meltdown deserves recognition.

Some of Korine’s earlier films were hallmarks of the ‘90s indie underground scene. I’m thinking particularly of his 1995 script for “Kids,” “Gummo,” and “Julien Donkey-Boy.” His latter-day films, including the wonderful “Spring Breakers,” broke the mold and helped A24 emerge as a major distributor of arthouse American cinema.

Korine still has that Terrence Malick script gathering dust on his shelf, waiting for the day inspiration—or the right moment—finally brings it back to life. Maybe that’s the film he’s thinking about right now, or at least that’s what we’re all hoping to be the case.