The Cinematheque

“Mister Lonely is enigmatic, its moods and meanings sometimes elusive in the way that dreams can be, but nearly every frame is an image of arresting clarity and beauty.”

A.O. Scott, New York Times

After an eight-year absence from feature filmmaking (full of aborted projects and substance abuse), Korine returned with this off-kilter exploration of celebrity culture, co-written with brother Avi. An unusually tame offering from the otherwise anarchist aesthete, Korine’s biggest price tag to date weaves a pair of seemingly disparate tales into its lopsided structure. Its somber, central story follows an Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who’s barely scraping by as a street performer and old-folks’-home entertainer in Paris. He relocates to the Scottish Highlands with a faux Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) to join a commune of celebrity stand-ins, led by a monstrous Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavant). The film’s parallel story, odd and enthralling, involves a convent of missionary nuns who freefall from airplanes, sans chutes. Bavarian madman Werner Herzog plays a priest; neo-New Wave stalwart Leos Carax, a talent agent. Spiritualized’s J. Spaceman and the Sun City Girls share soundtrack duties.

“The film is damn near a masterpiece.”

Don R. Lewis, Film Threat