Shouldn’t the movie ‘Aggro Dr1ft’ be more enjoyable, considering it is based on AI and video games?
It thunks especially hard precisely because Korine has, in the past, proven himself a totally canny, capable provocateur, whose work more truthfully reflected the respective spirits of their age. Trash Humpers, from 2009, cut against the ascent of the sleek digital age with a crummy, lo-fi, shot-on-VHS experiment in which he and three friends wear garish rubber masks, eat pancakes slathered in dish soap, and, yes, hump big bags of garbage.
In 2012, Spring Breakers showcased a sleeker but equally truthful portrayal. The film featured former Disney Channel stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens as rebellious teenage girls who were lured into a dangerous world by a gangster named Alien (played by James Franco). Despite its excessive and foolish nature, Spring Breakers recognized society’s growing obsession with appearances rather than substance. It embraced its own emptiness in a seductive manner. Even the abandoned project Fight Harm, which was conceived during the era of Tom Green, Jackass, Jerry Springer, and the WWE’s Attitude Era, was transparent about its intentions: satisfying the cravings for violence and self-inflicted harm.
There are moments of this astute, inventive Korine in Aggro Dr1ft. (Who else would ever make this movie, really?) A severed head dripping blocky bits of blue blood, BO’s wife twerking in a fishnet two piece—these are unmistakably singular, even poetic images. But they are too few, and far between. Even at 80 minutes, the film is less of a sensory assault than a slog, as eyes and mind quickly acclimatize to its ostensibly alienating images. At the risk of sounding like a philistine, shouldn’t a film costarring a neon-orange Travis Scott smoking a blunt on a speedboat full of mercenaries in demon masks be, well, more fun?
Aggro Dr1ft’s post-movie ambitions may ultimately be vindicated, if only by default. As of this writing, it has not secured a traditional distributor, and rumors abound that Korine may distribute the film himself, via the EDGLRD website. (It will certainly play better streaming inside a vintage RealPlayer window, or projected on a wall of a nightclub during a rave fueled by sketchy ecstasy, or bath salts.)
BO declares early on that the old world is finished. It is possible that he and Korine are correct. It is possible that movies are currently struggling and waiting for a new and exciting form to take their place. However, Aggro Dr1ft is not that new form. It exists in the uninteresting and dying side of a medium. It is not at the forefront of a new medium. When the new form arrives, Korine will probably find success in expanding its visual range. But with Aggro Dr1ft, he went against his own rule and initiated the conflict.
