TRASH HUMPERS – Harmony Korine Channels Giuseppe Andrews

by Red Cell

Harmony Korine’s 2009 film Trash Humpers, is making a very limited US run this Summer. The film is an ode to VHS culture, dirty old men, vandalism, Nashville, Tennessee and, of course, having very, very dirty sex with rubbish. Working from a script that was no more than a jumble of ideas written on random pieces of paper, the film was shot in a couple of weeks. Korine and cast took no breaks during this short shoot, Korine recalls, “We would just walk around and sleep under bridges or behind a strip mall somewhere. We’d get these big tractor tires and make a nest to sleep in.” It took only four months from the start of shooting to the premier in Toronto. The film “documents” the lives of a small band of sociopathic elderly perverts who squeal at each other, destroy things and peep in the windows of people at night. Oh, and fuck garbage.

I am left with the distinct feeling that Korine has been watching a LOT of Giuseppe Andrew’s underground films. Andrews, best known for his roles as Lex in Detroit Rock City and Deputy Winston in Cabin Fever, is a true Auteur who writes, directs, scores, edits, shoots and produces his films with actual street people, trailer park ingénues and elderly amateurs saying and doing outrageous things to one another. Andrews’ unusually successful avant garde, Trash Culture films are often fueled by actual drug and alcohol abuse by the actors involved, and while Korine employs disturbing make-up and vandalism to set a mood of old men gone wild, Andrews actually gets old men to go wild. The ridiculous monologues that Korine’s old men give could have been directly lifted from one of Giuseppe’s scripts. While I do find that Trash Humpers wields a Lynchian presence that I admire greatly, I find my mind wandering back to the honesty and surreal imagery of Andrew’s films like his epic Trailer Town. Werner Herzog had this to say about Trailer Town, “This place, this trailer park, I have a feeling that this is the real America.” And, I think I agree.

Even though Trash Humpers is a work of fiction, the film won the main prize at one of Europe’s largest documentary film festivals,The Copenhagen International Documentary Festival in November, 2009. Check out the trailer for Trash Humpers below as well as a couple of clips from Andrews’ work.

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“TRASH HUMPERS” TRAILER

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SCENES FROM “TRAILER TOWN”

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SCENE FROM ANDREWS’ “PERIOD PIECE”

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AND SPECIAL BONUS, “Phone Sex with Vietnam Ron”