AGGRO DR1FT (2023) Review and the Dilemma of Countercultural Auteurism
Note: I refer to AGGRO DR1FT as Harmony Korine's latest film as this piece was written before I knew of Baby Invasion (2024)
In June, I went to a limited screening of Harmony Korine’s latest film AGGRO DR1FT at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in San Francisco. Produced by his newly established media collective EDGLRD, it’s a surreal 80-minute experimental crime thriller shot in infrared.
The film follows a tortured assassin named Bo as he traverses the criminal underbelly of Miami for his final job of defeating a comically evil, demonic crime lord. This crime lord is so evil that he has prostitutes chained to his bed and numerous strippers locked in cages hanging from the ceiling of his estate. Also very important, Bo is a family man with a super hot and sexy wife with a fat ass. She’s always begging and crooning for him to come home because she is lonely, either diegetically or through voiceover and flashbacks. She’s seen twerking or posing seductively for the camera in almost every scene she appears in. The couple also has two kids who are basically just plot devices to drive home that contrary to his occupation, our hardened anti-hero Bo is indeed a family man. Another thing worth mentioning: Bo’s protege is played by popular rapper Travis Scott, though I expected more screen time from him based on the film’s heavy marketing using his namesake.
From what I gather from other internet users, the reception of AGGRO DR1FT is rather mixed. The institutions and dedicated Harmony Korine fans consider it a hypnotic, visually stunning masterpiece. The less positive reviews tend to base their arguments on its lack of plot and overall indulgent, hollow spectacle. Not to use a typical critic cop-out, but I think both sides are equally compelling and flawed. So rather than take a single stance, I aim to explore AGGRO DR1FT as a microcosm of Harmony Korine’s auteurism and the current trajectory of his work.
I myself am a relatively new fan of Harmony Korine’s work. I first saw Spring Breakers (2016) during my senior year of high school and finally worked up the courage at the beginning of this year to watch Kids (1995) which he wrote at just age 19 in collaboration with Larry Clark. Afterward, I saw Gummo (1997), Trash Humpers (2009), and Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) in quick succession. I became fascinated by Korine’s unconventional visual style and candid explorations of taboo human experiences and American life.
But as much as I admired these earlier films, I was well aware that their gonzo intimacy and earnestness are of a bygone era and the Harmony Korine of today is no longer making art as part of the people, but as a partially initiated member of the institutions he once rebelled against. From watching his recent interviews, Korine seems like a stereotypical rich guy who owns a mansion in Miami. He smokes fat Cuban cigars, sells his obscene and satirical paintings for up to half a million each, and proudly declares his love for strippers and big butts. All while his actual wife Rachel Korine is a thin, conventionally attractive, and respectable younger woman with whom he has a relatively normal family with multiple kids. The big butts and strippers are probably more of a fetish, in my opinion. All of this to say, one can’t really expect that previous level of sincerity in his art nowadays. Moving to a state with zero income tax and living in a hub of gentrified hedonism would surely alter any already wealthy person’s worldview.
So when I went to see AGGRO DR1FT, I had an understanding of Korine’s unconventional, atmosphere-driven style and knew better than to judge the film by the typical standards of plot-driven mainstream cinema. I also wasn’t enough of a diehard member of his cult following to venerate any piece of media with his namesake, nor did I expect the kind of introspection from his earlier works. I still greatly enjoyed the film. As a diehard fan of David Lynch, I’m always a sucker for dreamy, surreal atmospheres in which narrative conventions take the backseat. The infrared lens paired with the disturbing violence made for a dizzying, hypnotic viewing experience. I don’t know that I would call it an innovative masterpiece like some other fans, even though admittedly, I have yet to know of any other feature-length film shot with an infrared lens. I think the criticisms of it lacking substance are fair, but I also don’t think it necessarily detracts from the viewing experience. Not all art needs to be deeply profound and it didn’t seem like Korine was aiming to create anything particularly deep. It’s the kind of film you rewatch when you’re tripping and in need of visual stimuli. I went in anticipating something weird and entertaining, and I got exactly that.
Currently, Harmony Korine is in a dilemmatic spot as a creative: major companies don’t want to produce or distribute his films because they’re deemed unprofitable, yet they want his edgy namesake attached to their marketing campaigns to appeal to the cool kids who may be more impervious to normie marketing. Hence, his more recent collaborations with luxury brands like Supreme and Gucci. Nowadays, I feel that his artistry is the strongest when he collaborates with hip-hop artists who similarly toe the line between institutional recognition and disregard. Such collaborators have been Travis Scott, Bladee, Yung Lean, and Gucci Mane. One of my favorite music videos ever is “One Second” for Bladee and Yung Lean, which he directed this year. The unabashed trashiness and trailer park setting feel like an homage to Gummo and Trash Humpers but revamped with fast-paced editing, flashy sports cars, and a saturated color palette that still feels true to Korine’s current style. Also very fun and cool: his feverish, nightmare-fuel Boiler Room set this year with EDGLRD for Art Basel Miami in promotion of AGGRO DR1FT. Sinister laughter, psychosis-inducing neon visual effects, and big booty strippers included.
It’s the age-old dilemma of countercultural artists “selling out” when they receive critical recognition. We’ve seen it over and over again in the music industry with punk bands like the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees signing record deals and entering the mainstream consciousness. So I tend not to fault artists when they are criticized for being sellouts. But Harmony Korine is pushing it a little. He’s seen photographed with ex-Disney star turned controversial Youtuber and crypto scammer Jake Paul, and his wife appears in tagged photos rubbing elbows with Ivanka Trump. And of course, this includes the decision to immigrate to Florida, the land of libertarian assholes and tech bros looking for a change of scenery from the Bay Area. It’s hard not to grieve the death of Korine’s more humble beginnings and earnest filmmaking. With the current media landscape and audience expectations, it’s incredibly unlikely that anything like Kids or Gummo could be made today, let alone distributed. But also, the dissolution of monoculture and democratization of content niches on the internet makes it difficult to discern what exactly we can even rebel against.
With all of this in mind, I rate AGGRO DR1FT 3.5/5.