The Venice audience stayed up late to take drugs and play video games with Harmony Korine.
The midnight premiere of Korine’s latest, Baby Invasion, gave the festival a full dose of the video game/cinema mash-up Korine pioneered with AGGRO DR1FT, which hit Venice last year. And they seemed to like it.
The crowd at the Sala Grande whooped and cheered throughout the 80-minute experimental movie, shot without a script but with layers and layers of CGI and gamer-inspired visuals, as well as a pounding soundtrack from British EDM producer Burial, whom Korine, in the press conference before the movie, claimed he has only met by communicating over Discord and Sony PlayStation.
The plot, to the extent that term can be used, involves an immersive video game called Baby Invasion that has become a real-life phenomenon, a dark web-ish group called Duck Mobb, and lots of home invasions. In our review, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Jordan Mintzer called the film “both mind bending and mind numbing,” noting that “viewers are likely either vibe out or tune out.”
The Venice crowd, at least, seemed to vibe out. After the credits rolled, they leapt to their feet for a standing ovation. Korine dropped the devil mask he wore for AGGRO DR1FT in favor of a green-striped sports jacket, which he cast off when the applause started, walking forward to greet the crowd, egging them on to keep clapping. He was joined at the premiere by friend, French director Gaspar Noé, whose contributions to Baby Invasion have been described as “mysterious.”
It is unclear how Baby Invasion will be released following its festival premiere. AGGRO DR1FT skipped the traditional theatrical route, with Korine choosing to instead show it in various strip clubs. The director said he hasn’t yet decided how he will roll out Baby Invasion, except to say the version that screened here in Venice is only the “base layer” of what the project will become.
