01
Gummo
Why this pick
Korine’s earlier collage of damaged small-town lives shares Julien Donkey-Boy’s abrasive lo-fi texture, childlike imagery, unstable empathy, and refusal to tidy trauma into a conventional plot.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1999 1h 40m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Julien Donkey-Boy
Drama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Julien Donkey-Boy, try these.
01
02
The Idiots
Why this pick
Its raw Dogme camerawork, confrontational performances, and unnerving mix of provocation and vulnerability closely fit Julien Donkey-Boy’s intentionally unpolished emotional volatility.
03
Frownland
Why this pick
A punishingly intimate portrait of social dysfunction, shot with abrasive immediacy. Like Julien Donkey-Boy, it turns awkward encounters and fractured behavior into darkly uncomfortable human comedy.
04
Clean, Shaven
Why this pick
This subjective, distressingly close character study shares Julien Donkey-Boy’s interest in alienation and mental instability, using fractured sound and image rather than explanatory plotting.
05
Tideland
Why this pick
Its handmade, childlike visual world and deeply unsettling family environment echo the collision of innocence, fantasy, neglect, and grotesque tenderness in Julien Donkey-Boy.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
The film opens on television footage of an ice dancer - a recurring motif in the film - before cutting away to Julien, a young man with untreated schizophrenia. In the opening scene, Julien meets up with a small child with several turtles, only to strangle him to death when he is denied one. Julien then buries the child under the mud and prays for mercy from God.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Chloë Sevigny
Pearl
Evan Neumann
Chris
Alvin Law
Card-Playing Neighbor
Victor Varnado
Rapper
Roger Harris
Bowler
Mary O'Hara
Nun
Tom Mullica
Magician
Ewen Bremner
Julien