An experimental action film shot entirely using thermal cameras, you say? Well… what could possibly go wrong? Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft is that movie and it had a press screening at the 80th Venice International Film Festival yesterday, ahead of its world premiere tonight.
The outcome is a wild split directly down the middle between rave reviews and outright hatred. World of Reel caught up with one anonymous attendee who said:
“The film is totally bizarre and I got the impression that it was a prank on the audience. I can’t remember a screening where so many people walked out.”
The same source also said that when the movie finished there was a silence, then some slightly awkward applause that grew into cheering. During the screening itself there were some boos. then “grew into cheering” even as the outlet says a “few boos” were heard during the press screening. The ever-reliable Dark Horizons has pulled out two quotes from critics that demonstrate these polar opposites:
“Harmony Korine has completely f—– lost the plot. 5 stars”
James Witherspoon – Letterboxd
“What can go wrong in a movie with thermal cameras and Travis Scott? Everything. Literally everything. From the special effects done with Videomaker to the probably deaf sound designer. 0.5 stars.”
Giamma Macchioni – Letterboxd
Another quote they pulled is from Critic Glenn Kenny Twitter:
“The number of walkouts during ‘Aggro Dr1ft’ suggests a shameful percentage of the film press really doesn’t understand what ‘shot in Infrared’ actually means.”
This sounds to me like we had better tell Boba Phil to get his A24-loving, Ben Wheatley movie-watching pants on and unleash him to see what all the fuss is about. Aggro Dr1ft features a mysterious hit man called Bo, with a contract out on his own life while he has to fulfill a mission to kill a crime lord. Jordi Molla stars as Bo, while rapper Travis Scott co-stars.
Korine gave an interview with Variety where she talked about the movie being like “floating through a Grand Theft Auto-style environment, rendered in trippy electric colors”. Sounds like Phil might need some ‘shrooms too. Aggro Dr1ft is out in cinemas on October 7th.
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