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Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox, Melita Morgan ... see more see more... , Anita Pallenberg , Rachel Simon , Jason Pennycooke , Richard Strange , Michael-Joel Stuart , Esme Creed-Miles , Mal Whiteley , Daniel Rovai , Nigel Cooper , Joseph Morgan , Walid Afkir , Britta Gartner , Werner Herzog , David Blaine , Leos Carax

When a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) living in Paris falls for a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) during a performance at a retirement home, the lovestruck pair retreats to a ... read more read more...seaside castle in the Scottish highlands populated by a commune of reclusive impersonators. Earning a living can be a difficult endeavor in the City of Lights, and in order to make ends meet, one man has turned to mimicking the King of Pop. One day, while doing the moonwalk in an old folks home, Michael meets a beautiful Marilyn Monroe look-alike. When Marilyn suggests that Michael join her in traveling to the Scottish Highlands and move into a castle populated entirely by celebrity doppelgangers, the would-be gloved one readily accepts her invitation. Shortly after arriving at the castle, Michael and Marilyn find the commune preparing for their first-ever gala -- a lavish affair featuring appearances by Abe Lincoln, the Three Stooges, Buckwheat, Shirley Temple, Madonna, Sammy Davis Jr., and Charlie Chaplin. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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69 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 52 min.

Directed by: Harmony Korine

Release Date: May 22, 2007

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DVD Release Date: November 18, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (589)

  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    October 3, 2010
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    Very quirky, strange, and somber (almost dream-like), with sporadic moments of greatness. Harmony Korine's "Mr. Lonely" is a gem and unlike anything else out there.

    Sure, it lacks any sort of cohesion or common logic, but every now and then a film can throw these staples of c... read moreinema out the window and still deliver a worthwhile and enjoyable experience. This film does just that, and that's no easy feat.
  • jennifxu
    April 7, 2009
    jennifxu
    Uh, it was all right. I didn't exactly understand it, and it's too super indie for me, without being cutesy.
  • romy861
    April 3, 2009
    romy861
    I was very divided on this one. Some of it I loved and thought it was very beautifully framed. Other bits, like the "flying" nuns, I couldn't stand, and thought it was pointless to the film and ruined it. I liked what it had to say about identity and alienation, but I'm not su... read morere it was entirely successful getting it across. Samantha Morton was great as "Marilyn", and the guy who plays "Michael Jackson" also great, but some of the other characters were such caricatures, (which I guess is a given in a film about impersonators, but still...), as to be unlikable and irritating.
  • dunmyer
    May 3, 2008
    dunmyer
    [font=Garamond][size=3]"Mister Lonely," the new film from writer/director [b]Harmony Korine[/b], is cause for much rejoicing. American avant-garde cinema is still alive, and Mr. Korine is its new guiding spirit. [b]He is the new Federico Fellini.[/b][/size][/font]

    [img]http://w... read moreww.bfi.org.uk/whatson/lff/files/images/mister_lonely_01.jpg[/img]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]"Mister Lonely" is strange, beautiful and deeply tender. It exudes tremendous compassion for misfits who are rejected by mainstream society. We get to know a group of lovable outcasts who live together in a remote castle in Europe. All of them are impersonators; that is, they live their lives imitating iconic figures, such as Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, and Charlie Chaplin. In each case, the celebrity is a kind of security blanket for the impersonator, offering protection from the emotional brutality and loneliness of normal society.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]The lead character (played by [b]Diego Luna[/b]) lives as Michael Jackson. He is befriended in Paris by a woman who lives as Marilyn Monroe (played magnificently by [b]Samantha Morton[/b]). She takes him under her wing. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]As she approaches the castle with her newfound friend, she excitedly yells to her friends, "I found a Michael!"[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3][img]http://entimg.msn.com/i/CS/060262h1.jpg[/img][/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]The impersonators are not at all psychotic. They know that they are not the people they imitate. They just feel enriched and comforted living their lives as inspiring figures. One impersonator, struggling to articulate what motivates her, says that her mission is to restore a sense of wonder to daily life. I have to say, I did feel wonderment watching these misfits. Wonderment but also sadness. They seemed kind of disabled, and it was a little sad watching them struggle to make sense of adult life. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]There's a tragedy at the end of the film that radically transforms one of the lead characters, a tragedy which indicates that Korine also sees a powerfully sad aspect to these lives.[/size][/font]

    [img]http://blogs.indiewire.com/twhalliii/mrlonely.gif[/img]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]But the film presents the characters to some degree also as heroes. Korine most definitely is not making fun of them. If anything, he would be contemptuous of anyone who would mock such people. Korine seems to find these characters vastly more interesting and worthy of love than people who lead normal lives. These characters may not have ever gotten out of childhood, but who's to say that adulthood makes sense anyway? These Peter Pan-like characters are certainly more deeply good than normal adults.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Their sensitivity is especially spotlighted when the sheep they raise (90% of their sheep are black, incidentally) become infected with a contagion and have to be put down. When the sheep are killed, everyone is tremendously grief-stricken. What is amazing is that Korine does not present the grief as contemptible or pathetic. He presents it as remarkable and beautiful. This passage is one of the film's most elegiac sequences. If Korine has any hope for the world, it seems, then that hope is embodied in the form of these ultra-sensitive lost children.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Occasionally, Korine breaks away from this storyline and focuses on a priest and a group of nuns working in an impoverished tropical country. The name of the country is never stated in the film. But Korine actually was in attendance when I saw the film, and at the end he answered a few questions. During his commentary, he mentioned that these sequences were filmed in Panama. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]The priest is played by a highly animated [b]Werner Herzog[/b], in a fantastic bit of stunt-casting. [/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3]There is no connection between the two storylines. The activities of the priest and nuns just echo some of the themes emerging from the main storyline. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]The Panamanian sequences are highly enigmatic and spiritual. The priest occasionally uses a small airplane to fly over remote villages and drop food. A few nuns ride with him. They experience flights of spiritual ecstasy that are almost frenzied as they push food out of the plane. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]I stated above that the sheep-killing sequence was among the most elegiac in the film; the scenes in the air are even more so. Korine carried a camera into the airplane with the actors, taking tremendous personal risks, and filmed the airdrops with extraordinary grace. I'd even describe these scenes as hypnotic.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Something terrible happens on one of the missions. I'm not going to discuss it in detail because I don't want to spoil the surprise. I can say that I audibly gasped when it happened. This shock is then followed by a sequence that is among the most memorable and beautiful in cinema history. I'll just say that it involves someone flying and plunging. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]Just when you thought there was nothing left to do in cinema that was new, Korine takes a camera into the sky and creates something that is as breathtaking and meaningful as Fellini's opening sequence of "8 1/2." How lovely that both of these sequences involve the sky.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Stepping back from all the magical and tragic goings-on in the film, what do we end up with? What does "Mister Lonely" add up to? Someone in my audience asked Korine that. This good-natured but dim-witted person ventured a totalizing "point" to the film and asked Korine if he'd gotten it right. "Is that the point of the film?" he asked. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]Korine laughed but then kindly offered some artistic guidance. Basically Korine said that his films are never intended to have a single point and would never even be complete. They're more like questions than answers, he said. Someone else asked, Why did you put such-and-such in the film? His answer: "I don't know. It just felt right." [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]Like all avant-garde artists, Korine is not much for analysis. [/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Each person viewing an avant-garde work of art is invited to create his or her own meanings. What messages did I construct? I would say I found the film a meditation on the fragility of life. One moment life is here, and another moment it's gone. While it's here, furthermore, we struggle to make sense of it and find our place in it. In particular, we strive to find kindred souls with whom to bond. At times this proves intensely difficult, which can crush our souls. But when it works, when we're in communion with others, God seems to appear. But then he's gone.[/size][/font]
  • ryguy4738
    April 9, 2012
    ryguy4738
    *** out of ****

    After he made "Julien Donkey-Boy" in 1999, writer-director/provocateur Harmony Korine's already unstable life came crashing down upon him like a big ol' wave. A tragically large fire burned down his house, destroying a script that he had been working on via his... read more computer - prompting him to spend good money to try and recover it, only emerging with a single sentence - and better yet, he descended deeper into drug abuse. Also, Korine's girlfriend Chloe Sevigny broke up with him, presumably over his rapid drug use over the years among other things, and he lost the passion to want to make films any longer all-together. With that, he started touring various countries - drugs always at his side - waiting for...something, a miracle perhaps. Suicide was a possibility, given his current mental and emotional state. Korine was hopelessly lost and depressed. Then, along came Agnes B; a fashion designer who took a liking to Korine and his filmography. She agreed to help Korine get back on his feet as both a filmmaker and a human being; eventually helping to produce what would be his next film, "Mister Lonely".

    Indeed, there was an eight year gap between this and Korine's previous feature. One can tell; everything Korine has done up to this point is so different from what he's accomplished here. "Mister Lonely" - while as odd, beautiful, and insanely sublime as the director's other films - is easily his most accessible (?) feature to date. That is to say that if there was ever a Harmony Korine picture that a particularly large group of people had the potential to shamelessly admit they like, this would be it. It is, like the last two films from Korine, imperfect and far from indulgent to everyone's personal taste when it comes to cinema; but it's also an assault on the senses, complete with absolutely spellbinding images and music that is at one moment foreboding, and at another evocative of the loneliness cropped up inside of us all. This is, more or less, the director's most personal project yet.

    So what is the plot? You might be thinking, "Oh boy, here we go" if you've seen any of Korine's other films - most of which a good majority of critics deem virtually "plotless" - but hold on, like I said; this one's a bit different in comparison to "Gummo" and "Julien Donkey-Boy". It concerns a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who works and lives in Paris, forever alone, as the great internet meme goes. He goes unnoticed most days, and would get a better and perhaps even higher-paying job, if the thought would cross his mind to begin with, which is doesn't. He believes he was born a Michael Jackson, and that impersonating the legendary musical figure is what he was created to do. One day, while on the job, he meets a rather lovely Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) who opens up new doors for the isolated and loveless (but nonetheless friendly) being that is Michael. Just like that, the two are friends, and Marilyn invites Michael to come with her to a commune in the Scottish Highlands, where she lives.

    Here's the catch: everyone else on the commune is also an impersonator. You've got Abe Lincoln, Charlie Chaplin (who is married to Marilyn Monroe), Madonna, Shirley Temple, The Queen, The Pope, Sammy Davis Jr, Little Red Riding Hood, James Dean, Buckwheat, and the Three Stooges. Of course, they welcome Michael with open-arms and elaborate hospitality; even though they have a great many issues on their minds at the moment. For example, the impersonators are all pitching in to try and create a grand show, where they will perform (hopefully) in front of a large crowd. Not many people even know of their existence, most likely, but they assume with much confidence that by the time they're through with the show, they will rise to stardom. Another more problematic topic is sickly livestock, which causes emotional panic amongst the commute residents. Meanwhile, there's a strange but undeniably whimsical sub-plot that involves a priest (Werner Herzog), located in some Third World Country, who tries to convince a convent of nuns that God shall protect them from death, and therefore they must skydive. If you think you know what that looks like, think again.

    Yes, he's a little bit special - not to mention down-right whacked from time to time - but there's no denying that Korine is an exceptional talent in the world of the visual medium. Nearly every frame in "Mister Lonely" is jam-packed with message-making beauty. I don't know the story behind everything I saw, but the background research that I did do served me well. Take, for instance, a scene where Diego Luna's Michael Jackson character paints eggs and hallucinates upholding a conversation with an entire row of them near the end; where he is even lonelier than he was before. The scene was inspired by one of Korine's very own personal hobbies - during his own times of loneliness - which was, yes, painting the faces of celebrities and people onto eggs. Only the most heartless of people will say that there is nothing to such scenes - or images - and that the film is completely devoid of merit. It will not affect everyone, and it didn't necessarily resonate with me too much on a purely emotional level, but I understand and admire the aims and intents.

    Odd, delicate, surreal, and whimsical in every way imaginable; "Mister Lonely" is certainly no classic, but the images that Korine brings to the screen are as forgettable as ever. Here, he ditches his signature low-budget technical aspects but keeps his imagination in-tact. He seeks to provide a sympathetic portrayal of celebrity impersonators, and so he does. Luna and Morton play their roles honestly - even if some of the dialogue seems just a tad silly at times - and who can resist Herzog's insightful - but slightly overlong - philosophical ramblings as a priest lost deep in the jungle regions of who knows where? This is a film of subtle, simple charms; not for everyone - not for a lot of people - but nevertheless, I'm just glad it signifies a return-to-form for Korine. With every minute spent watching the film, you can sense the recovery of the director. He may never be Mister Coherant - or Mister Mainstream - and he's still Mister Lonely, but at least he's not Mister Druggie (anymore); that I will give him right off the bat.
  • michaelcorleone
    September 4, 2010
    michaelcorleone
    Mister Lonely is a unique part of Harmony Korine's filmography - compared to his other work, it is more formally structured (relatively speaking) and the overall tone is significantly lighter. This is a visually exquisite work, with inspired camerawork that brightens up every sce... read morene. The expectedly loose, irreverent direction from Korine is effective as always, providing us with an experience unlike any other and making us laugh at genuinely surprising images.
  • shitfaced8
    April 20, 2010
    shitfaced8
    This is easily my least favourite Harmony Korine film. While it is still undeniably a Korine film (bizarre character's occupying a vaguely surrialist world) it seem's that he has lost much of his youthful energy which made his earlier film's so great. Not a bad effort at all, and... read more I've heard that Trash Humper's is more of what you'd expect from Korine, but this film felt like he was trying to make a more mature effort but the end result feels a little half baked. It seems that he wanted to prove to his critics that he could indeed make a "real" movie, and to a certain extent he succeeded, but I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed this as much as Gummo or Julien Donkey Boy. Still a worth while film for Korine fans, and might attract a few new converts. But fan's of his earlier output should be warned that this is quite different from his other efforts.
  • divinetrash
    December 11, 2008
    divinetrash
    It's very hard to say something about this movie because it lacks sufficient depth, insight and development, not to mention knowing what it wants to be and say, yet at the same time every fragment of it is so original and beautiful. I guess the best way to enjoy it, if there is a... read moreny, is to admire each scene individually and try not to look at it as a whole.
  • GabrielKnight
    May 9, 2011
    GabrielKnight
    A bizarre tale involving 2 seemingly unrelated storylines. While I can't say that I understood the meaning of it completely, it's a well made and a strangely entertaining movie.
  • ShaneWreck
    August 18, 2009
    ShaneWreck
    Who else but Harmony could think up images like Buckwheat giving the Pope a bath in the middle of a field, Abe Lincoln and The Three Stooges shooting sheep, or nuns jumping out of planes on BMX bikes? You even get Werner Herzog playing a priest. What more could you ask for?

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Critic Reviews

Philip Marchand
May 30, 2008
Philip Marchand, Toronto Star

Korine has found an evocative subject, but he remains entirely too cavalier in this attitude towards narrative coherence. Full Review

J. R. Jones
May 30, 2008
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

In contrast to the grimy and occasionally grotesque Gummo (1997) and Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), this drama has a more gentle, Felliniesque feel. Full Review

Roger Ebert
May 30, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The film doesn't work, and indeed seems to have no clear idea of what its job is, and yet (sigh) there is the temptation to forgive its trespasses simply because it is utterly, if pointlessly, original. Full Review

Rick Groen
May 30, 2008
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

A movie that goes to extraordinary lengths to say ordinary things. Full Review

Tasha Robinson
May 29, 2008
Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune

Korine falls so thoroughly in love with many of his images, including his opening shot, that he stretches them out in hypnotic slow motion. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
May 23, 2008
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Like Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, the film has overarching problems yet contains diamonds of clarity and inspiration that you won't find in any dozen movies. You'll have to mine for tho... Full Review

Scott Foundas
May 22, 2008
Scott Foundas, Variety

Korine's most lavishly produced pic to date begins as a sweet-tempered tale of social misfits-turned-celebrity impersonators, but falls short of its ambition to say something meaningful about the obse... Full Review

Desson Thomson
May 16, 2008
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

A visually and conceptually mesmerizing and mystical movie. Full Review

Carina Chocano
May 9, 2008
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times

While it's full of arresting, indelible images, Mr. Lonely remains mostly on the level of abstraction. You get it but you don't always feel it. Full Review

Wesley Morris
May 9, 2008
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

In its slightly comical, somewhat mordant, and completely ambient way, Mister Lonely wonders about the perils of idol worship, the way people can hand their entire selves over to a religion, be it Cat... Full Review

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