Aggro Dr1ftis Harmony Korine’s new experimental action film that dropped at the Venice Film Festival. The film sparked mass walkouts and a 10-minute standing ovation at its premiere. A surprising infrared image of an armored man holding a submachine gun seems to come right out of a video game, which might be just what Korine wanted.Aggro Dr1ftis meant to evoke a dreamlike elegy ofa tormented assassin, or at least that’s what the description says.
Press and fans alike seem to be talking about the film in a broader scope – the inspiration it’s taken from gamer culture, its wanton use of AI, where it fits in cinema, or if it’s meant to be there at all. Harmony Korine and Travis Scott fans seemed to worship the film, while many press members walked out.
Critics have describedAggro Dr1ftas everything from “boring” to “the future of cinema” and sometimes in the same breath. Korine himself notes that he’s trying to break out of the normal conventions of film to the point where he’s not even trying to make a movie anymore. Experimental filmsare always controversial.Aggro Dr1ftmight be a bit different because it represents a prominent filmmaker immersing himself in a culture Hollywood tends to ignore.
What Even Is Aggro Dr1ft?
Harmony Korine insists that this was the first project in a whole new direction he’s taking.Aggro Dr1ftis meant to be an immersive experience with just barely enough story to keep the film from being a complete abstraction of sounds and images. The colors of the infrared cameras pair with AI designs that createa visual cornucopiathat still somehow translates as dark and foreboding. Variety quoted Korine in an interview when he spoke on what he was trying to create:
“This was kind of a first attempt, to figure out what’s it like to live in a game, to let it wash through you,” he says. “It’s almost like a rave, or rave cinema. That was really the thing: How do you make something that feels like audiovisual drugs — that allows you to enter the image and the sound — but at the same time, there’s a story and a narrative?”
But the story and the cast don’t seem to be the focus here. Travis Scott, who seems to be a big pull for the movie, is only seen for seven minutes. The story, which critics say is an “iridescent plunge into the world and psyche of a serial killer,” is hardly mentioned alongside the film. The plot is referred to as “thin,”and the screenplay“insubstantial.” But again, that doesn’t seem to be the movie’s point.
From what Harmony Korine has been saying, he’s more pleased with the context surrounding the movie than the movie itself. He’s happier looking at TikToks and thinking about the non-film possibilities thatAggro Dr1ftmight create in the future. His plan is to use the profits of the film to create his personal brand, EDGLRD, which will design and produce objects, fashion, and media in a similar vein toAggro Dr1ft.
Related:5 Great Experimental Films Everyone Should See
Is Aggro Dr1ft Good?
Saying an experimental film is good or bad is a hard thing to do. They’re meant to change perspectives on what can be considered film, and that’s certainly what Korine meant to do withAggro Dr1ft. Critics seem bored but happy, which is an interesting reaction to have towards what’s meant to be called the entertainment industry. Those who praise the film seem to say that it’s not good, but it’s good almost in the same sentence. Areview from Indiewiresaid:
“I was bored or exasperated by almost every minute ofAggro Dr1ft, but there are only 80 of them, and not a single second of this AI-inflected nightmare experiment feels insincere. For all of its tedium, it couldn’t be further removed from the artless garbage that tech bros pay to promote on Twitter because generative language platforms make them feel like the creatives they’ve always resented.”
This might be an excellent way to describe howAggro Dr1ftwill affect the art scene. Perhaps it will give some direction to AI artists and provide Hollywood with an avenue to use new technology in an ethical way. Korine’s focus seems to be more on the sensory experience than the aesthetic appeal.Variety’s review said:
“This is the first movie I’ve seen that doesn’t feel like it was meant to be watched; instead, it was designed to wash over you — or maybe just to unspool on one of the many screens illuminated in your field of vision, while your focus ricochets between it and whatever else is competing for your attention.”
Related:The Most Essential Harmony Korine Films, Ranked
Aggro Dr1ftis certainly the film of the future, if that future simply dissolved all sense of film as we know it. And perhaps it will. Perhaps the world will become a neon light-scape with anything that we used to call a story present merely to support the images we’re seeing. For Harmony Korine, this is the future of cinema, and of course, some people are going to walk out. But a lot of people are going to stay and applaud.
