One of my all time favorites.

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Harmony Korine returned to the cinematographic circuit after a 8-year long hiatus, no longer a prolific and controversial teenager, now evolved in style, subtlety, film language and self-conscience. Apparently inspired by his own failings in life Korine delves into the wacky world of celebrity impersonators - of people not satisfied with who they are and acquisitioning the personas of others in a search for betterment and happiness. Michael Jackson (Diego Luna of "Y Tu Mamá También" fame) does the moonwalk on the streets of London, dancing and acting his part in front of passerby's while the boom-box stays conspicuously silent. Upon a chance meeting with Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) he decide to join an impersonator community living off the land on a island near the Scottish coast. There amidst Charlie Chaplin, Abraham Lincoln, the Stooges, Madonna and James Dean he finds an idyllic bubble of happiness. The catalyst for the Utopian self-destruction comes in the form of a sheep disease, which forces the motley band to kill and burn their carcasses. With it burning the feeling of safety and detachment from worry."Mister Lonely" also features a second thread running parallel and seemingly unconnected with the main storyline. It tells the story of a group of nuns, who believe that through the power of faith they are able to fly. Their pilot - a catholic priest Father Umbrillo is adorably played by Werner Herzog, a adequate comrade in arms for Korine given the strong metaphysical essence of his work. Albeit seemingly disparate, the two interloping stories basically deal with the same issue of striving to become an ideal - through faith fulfilling the will of god or by imitating the semblance of perfection of the impersonated celebrity.The theme chosen for his career reboot seems like very fortuitous and ripe for the picking by a avantgarde artist such as Corine. Dealing with a relatively abundant production budget Corine pulls no stops to deliver a visually perfect movie, proving beyond a doubt his immaculate taste for picture and music, seamlessly constructing beautiful albeit absurd imagery (Michael Jackson riding a mini bike to the song "Mister Lonely", flying nuns of BMXs or face-covered yoga training). Astounding vivid and mesmeric with a strong premise the overall artistic success is pretty obvious, especially in comparison the the raw predecessors. Albeit not entirely style over substance Corine fails to balance the ideas and images with a passable story. No longer a chaotic collage of relatively unconnected scenes ("Gummo"), structured around the island community "Mister Lonely" feels overly improvisational and uninspiring, as if guided by a belief that populating the movie with oddballs (in true Wes Anderson hollowness) and quirking up the ante will suffice to keep the audience intrigued for two hours. The characters themselves are uninspiring, once the novelty of their wackiness wears off becoming a group of doubly faceless individual (neither truly the personas they attempt to recreate nor fleshed out individuals behind the mask).The grading for Corine is somewhat generous given my issues with his efforts, much owed to the admiration of topics touched as well as some utterly magnificent scenes. To some extent the flying-nuns storyline offers just compensation for the ramblings on in other sequences. A well toned, beautifully portrayed effort with a grim overtone, featuring an unbelievable entry scene, where Werner Herzog donned as a priest confronts a man over his unfaithfulness. Apparently a true event it transcends the overall value of the movie, however capturing an unmistakable feel of Herzog's documentary endeavours and strictly pointing in which direction Corine seems intent on heading.The biggest misstep however is a pretty ridiculous reinvention of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Wise Up" sequence... albeit with a different song and sung by a bunch of talking eggs...

Harmony Korine - he strips the audience into camps that get ravenous at each other. I remember being in film school and knowing people who *loved* Gummo, loved it to death (one girl even did an homage picture of herself like the one boy with his face turns to the side in profile), and would defend it with... I don't know what logic, that (in good argument) that Korine had a vision, that he had a great eye at such a young age (21 or 22) at the outcasts of the world. Fine. Then on the other camp, people *hated* the work of him, couldn't stand it, couldn't get it. Understandable as well: Gummo is, I should add, a freak-show, Jerry Springer shot with the camera of Sven Nykvist on holiday. As for Julien Donkey Boy, well, that's a whole other story.The reason perhaps that I have a whole paragraph about Korine's reputation is that Mister Lonely, his latest film, is also his first in over eight years. Whatever it was that spurred him and his brother Avi to get to work on this after such a hiatus from the director's chair is beyond me, but it is admittedly nothing else if not fascinating - both in how it works wonders and charms and, frankly, how it can bore and act like it's God's gift to the lives of celebrity impersonators. It's the kind of film where things happen but they kind of don't at the same time; it has Michael Jackson (Diego Luna) and Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) meet in Paris, Monroe takes Michael to a Scottish castle where a family of celebrity impersonators (i.e. Chaplin, Stooges, Buckwheat, the Pope, the Queen) all are gathered to do... what? Well, put on a show for the locals, perhaps, even if they don't show up much, at all.And in the meantime, Werner Herzog - yes, Werner Herzog, stay tuned - is in the picture as a Latin American priest who has a plane full of nuns dropping rice on villagers and then, shock of shocks, one of the nun falls out of the plane and can fly. This may be, for me, one of the only times I can remember when Herzog has been not used to his full potential on screen. Perhaps there's a symbolic/Christian/belief connection that I did not get at all, but the rhythm of film-making that Korine had suddenly would shift gears every so often to this unrelated-to-the-celebrity-people to Herzog and the nuns (at one point Herzog, with big goggle/glasses on, rambles on camera about this or that, which usually is enormously gratifying but here is not), and it's as if we're plopped into one of Herzog's docu-fiction films filled with ecstatic truth. This would be fine - if there was *more* of this throughout the film, which there isn't (I'd say %10 of the running time has Herzog and/or flying nuns), or if they had been used for a whole other project and Korine had focused on just the family of celebrities.And yet, it's hard for me not to recommend the picture on some gut-level. There is invention here, and daring, and some kind of intuition with a personal aesthetic that makes Mister Lonely come alive in some unpredictable ways. But on the flip-side to Korine's inspirational coin are some hard truths to face: he finds all of this so self-important, so much like we're seeing something that we *must* find amazing and deep that he gets ahead of his own material. Some scenes end up rambling, others like Marilyn Monroe dancing slowly to herself and then it fading to black and the words "Thriller" streaming across the scene are beautiful and totally perplexing and pretentious in one fell swoop. There's also something of an easy out with the tragic part after the big performance is given (I wont mention it as it is a good spoiler), and it too leads to a conclusion that has some meaning but not enough. Some of this is very funny (hard not to laugh at cussing Abe Lincoln or smelly Pope), some of it weird in a good way... and some of it may make you wonder why you rented it in the first place.Again, as with Gummo, Mister Lonely will divide it's audience (frankly, I'm sort of divided among my own thoughts), but if you need that challenge of a director saying "this is what celebrity, the idea of being someone or doing something you care about that has f***-all to do with the rest of 'ordinary' humanity", or just some remarkable cinematography with art-house tattooed on its eyelids, check it out. If it's a disappointment, it was worth a shot. And if it's the best movie of the year, well, more power to you.

Mister Lonely is one of the most original films of this year, or any year and with a plot consisting of a young man who makes a living as a Michael Jackson impersonator, you would have to agree. Michael soon meets a woman who impersonates Marilyn Monroe and she invites him back to a commune in the hills where in a secluded village, everyone there lives as someone else and pretends to be them and their big delight comes from putting on talent shows for the other villages. Mister Lonely really made an impression on me when I watched it for more reasons than I can probably think of, so I will do my best to list all of them. First of all, the script and film itself is really unlike anything I have seen before because of it's original storytelling and concept. It is also one of the best looking films I have ever seen with luscious landscapes and backgrounds to gritty and natural settings as well. Whatever the film is capturing with it's lens, it looks fantastic. The performances were all right on key and the whole ensemble cast needs to be recognized for that. The film with it's music, slower pace and images of beauty and sometimes shots of absurd things going on, are shot in such a particular way and with the background music and the cinematography, I found a lot of the film to be peaceful, harmonious and quite something to behold. The story itself is an excellent character study and from my past reviews, you may be able to tell that those are the particular type of films that I enjoy. This look at characters who are unhappy with their own lives, so they have to resort to being someone else to make themselves feel significant is something I know I have dealt with in my life and I'm sure many readers of this have in their lifetime as well. The way the film dealt with these characters trying to cover up their sadness by putting on a different face and being someone else and concluding with a message that I truly found touching, inspirational and a brilliant way to end a film like this. The last part of this film, just like the rest of the film is poetic in it's style and beauty and I truly felt moved by emotions of happiness and sorrow with this film, but they were never bad feelings and were always totally appropriate to what was going on in the film. What an interesting concept of people having to be someone else in order to please themselves and what a wonderful message to get across in such a unique and creative way. Visually this film is stunning, the storytelling and pace as well as the acting all work out perfectly and create a fable that is truly one of a kind and probably has to be seen to be believed and it should definitely be seen. I know a lot of critics have not given this film all that positive reviews, but I think they missed the film's point completely because on an artistic level there is so much to admire here and if you are anything like me you are probably tired of all the same old clichéd story lines coming out of Hollywood and now we have this inventive, touching and truly unique film to come along and critics don't get it. Something is definitely wrong there. If you have ever been interested in independent, or experimental films then this film is a great place to start and for those tired of the same old Hollywood stuff that we see each week then definitely give this one a try as well. I only wished I lived in a bigger city where I got to review films like this all the time. A moving, beautiful and completely artistic overwhelming treat for your mind and eyes, Mister Lonely is the best film I have seen so far this year and one of the most important films of this decade, or any decade and deserves to be seen and studied by film students and film buffs for years to come. A wonderful achievement.

Harmony Korine. I'm not sure what he was trying to do with this film. If it was to turn my good day feeling into a night of disturbing memories than I guess he succeeded.I know that there were big questions raised in this movie like, who are we really, what are we here for, is there really a God. All great questions, But I really don't think that is funny when you have the questions along side such tragedy. I'm all for real life being portrayed but come on. It's never funny when a wife is being raped, someone killing themselves (and family and friends find the body) and people die for unexplained and unnecessary reasons.The only good thing about this movie was the location it was filmed. There is a lot of beautiful places.I'm not a film student or even know all that much on the subject I admit this, but I do know that when I leave the theater with a feeling of disgust, then it was not a film I would recommend to anyone.