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Julien Donkey-Boy
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Harmony Korine
Directed by: Harmony Korine
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 15, 1999
DVD: March 20, 2001
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language, some sexuality and disturbing images
Starring Ewen Bremner, Chloe Sevigny, Werner Herzog, and Evan Newmann
A visionary portrait of love and madness, which follows a compassionate young teacher who finds redemption through his interactions with the eccentric students in a comically surreal school for the blind. (Independent Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Mister Lonely
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film.com Peter Brunette
Not a film for everyone. And though I deeply admire it, it's not a film that even I want to see again in the immediate future.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Feels like it could go blow up at any time. It implodes instead, and the meltdown, though visible in one of the final sequences, is still corrosive.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Korine remains unnecessarily smitten with sordidness, and there's plenty of it here.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The movie is truly an open text--its generous poetry inspires free association rather than predictable emotion.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Korine confirms his reputation as one of today's most experimentally minded filmmakers, helped by an inventive cast including German director Herzog in a surprisingly strong performance as the father.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It seems at first to be merely a jumble of discordant images ("Freaks" shot by the "Blair Witch" crew) but then, if you stay with it, the pattern emerges from the jumble.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
Looks like no other recent release...certainly rich enough to warrant more than one viewing.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
I'd never seen anything like it, and can say that I hope to never see anything like it again.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
At its best, it will impale you on its raw urgency. At other times, it's a slog through long improvisations that never achieve dramatic liftoff.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Undeniably interesting, but not entirely successful.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The stranger and more unusual the characters, and the less they're explained, the better.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Often unsettlingly funny, though it ultimately recedes into a dark womb of despair.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Writer-director Harmony Korine seems more interested in churning your stomach than in warming your heart.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
In his quest to capture truth and honesty, (Korine) has made a movie that is practically impossible to like.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Janet Maslin
The territory where the circus sideshow meets the avant-garde...visually arresting, dramatically blurry.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Ana Marie Cox
The filmmaker brings the audience to a precipice of discomfort, implying that the discomfort is itself the point.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Julien may be a donkey-boy but it's Harmony Korine, this film's director, who is a horse's ass.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
A handheld and grainy exercise in cine-stupefaction...too spastic to connect...the movie just flails the air.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Sucker bait for the sort of credulous cinast who'll buy anything ugly and boring that looks like it's avant-garde...rancid stew of cheap shocks, sleaze and phony artiness.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Craig B gave it a10:
Okay, this is not a film for everyone. However, it stikes me that most of the negative comments that I have read here seem to be more a reaction to the characters and their lifesyle than to the elements of filmmaking. These are not necessarily people you want to hang out with in real life, but likable characters are not necessarily interesting characters to watch. I suppose one could fairly criticize the film as lacking in plot but that is precisely one aspect of the film that I find appealing. By not following the conventions of Hollywood storytelling, the film creates an atmosphere in which one feels that anything could happen. I found the camera work to be engaging and creative. The characters were completely original and all fairly well developed. In fact, I would defy anyone to say that these characters are ones that we have seen anywhere else in any other movie. I believe the quality of the acting was superb and very convincing (especially after seeing an interview with the actor who played the title character; he's not the dimwit that he played in the film). This film provides an interesting glimpse into a culture that is worth examining.
judith p. gave it a0:
As negative integers have not been included as choices for the rating scale, I can come no closer to evaluating this film than I have with my rating of zero; but Julien Donkey-Boy truly deserves far less. Harmony Korine owes a cash reimbursement to any audience to this self-indulgent flatulence.
Christian P. gave it a10:
A work of brilliance, reminiscent of Herzog's great movies of the 1980s. Compelling viewing.
Lee gave it a 10:
A stupefying, deeply sad, tormented, and evocative portrayal of one messed up American family. Like nothing else, like all true art.
