Word: boyness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...years in prison, saying he felt Kinkel's potential threat to society was greater than any chance of rehabilitation. He did add, however, that if Kinkel followed through on his promises to be a "model inmate" by helping others on the inside, the judge might consider commuting the boy's sentence. So if all goes well, Kinkel could, in theory, be out just in time to attend his 50th high school reunion...
Despite some sweet moments and sincere performances, the show fails to register. One problem is that adapter Richard Nelson has moved the pivot of the story--a song that stirs memories in Gabriel's wife (Brown) of a long-dead boy who once loved her--to earlier in the evening, thus throwing off the rhythm of the piece. (Another change: she sings the song rather than hears it.) What's more, Walken seems blandly disengaged as Gabriel, missing the psychological tension, singing indifferently and barely hinting at an Irish accent. Walken used to be a Broadway dancer, but here...
...school for the blind. He lives at home with his pregnant sister (Sevigny), tyrannical father (played by renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog), athletic brother Chris (Evan Neumann) and unnamed grandmother (played by Korine's own grandmother, Jorce). In terms of structure, that's about all there is, for donkey-boy is not a traditional narrative. Certainly, there's a sequence of events (albeit bizarre ones)--Julien kills a boy in the park, Julien befriends a blind ice-skater, Julien goes to church, etc.--but no particular story is told. Instead, the viewer is presented with a motley assemblage of images...
...promptly left the theater. Others, however, sat rapt with attention throughout the closing credits. The wildly mixed response to the film is likely because of its unconventionality. As the first American "Dogme 95" film, a Norwegian cinematic movement that calls for the "stripping down of film," donkey-boy was shot using hand-held cameras and without written dialogue or special lighting and sound. Throw in some low-tech visual effects (superimposing, slow motion, etc.), and the result is a visual spectacle unlike anything in the American film tradition. Rumor has it that Steven Spielberg is planning his own "Dogme" film...
...Bizarre, unpredictable, grotesque and yet strangely poignant, julien donkey-boy is above all unforgettable. If you're tired of the standard Hollywood fare, check out this daring experiment in cinematic syntax...