Korine’s reputation precedes him. His cult legends like Kids and Trash Humpers are hard to eclipse. They have, however, earned him a place in both the indie canon and the art financiers’ chequebooks. This hasn’t always been to the work’s benefit. 2019’s Beach Bum shot in the style of Baywatch, for example, was thumbs-down dull.
Last year’s Aggro Dr1ft is a brutal story of “the world’s greatest assassin”. The violence of gunshots, car chases, and concealed identities certainly could make for a sleepless night. Shot in a psychedelic, infrared colour, this film might be Korine’s return to form.
None of this is of use to the gallery, however. A series of canvases reproduces the film’s most striking scenes with the finesse of an inexperienced but already blasé studio assistant. The garish colours which may have carried the story in cinema here are unfitting of their new medium. One or two do invoke the eeriness promised by the project’s synopsis, but this is through chance rather than artistic merit. To make matters worse, the exhibition includes a couple of video objects that loop the film’s sequences. These would be more appropriate for NFT drops if not bus-stop billboards.
