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Premise: The lower-class denizens of trash - strewn Xenia, Ohio, which has never recovered from a 1970s tornado, lead lives of cacophonous desperation.

Pitch: Nathanael West ["The Day of the Locust"] characters + Diane Arbus images.

Pedigree: The directing debut of 23 - year - old Harmony Korine, who at age 19 wrote the screenplay for Larry Clark's acclaimed and controversial 1995 film, "Kids."

Audience: Young audiences tuned in to contemporary alienation and older viewers concerned about the breakdown of traditional American social structures.

Verdict: The collage of scenes in "Gummo" from the daily lives of dysfunctional adults and children offers a uniquely disturbing vision of the messy underbelly of contemporary America. The filmmaker observes without editorialising, allowing the viewers to sort out their own complex reactions to the odd sights on display. Befitting the lack of cohesion and purpose in his characters' lives, Korine does without a conventional narrative structure. The most substantial thread is the relationship between a strange - looking adolescent boy named Solomon [Jacob Reynolds] and his even more troubled teenage companion, Tummler [Nick Sutton.] Like Diane Arbus' stark photographic images of the bizarre lives of ordinary people, Korine's images are a parade of mundane but nightmarish glimpses into a reality from which most of us prefer to avert our eyes. Many films today strike fashionable poses of cynicism, but few have the courage to dive so deeply into the cul - de - sac of the average American's existence in an age lacking a political or moral compass.

Background: Filmgoers may recognize actress Linda Manz, who plays Jacob Reynolds' mother, from her role as the mysterious country girl in Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven." Manz was absent from the screen for 16 years when Korine found her in northern California.

By Joe McBride, Cinemania Online