Aggro Dr1ft
By Kit Macdonald
The latterday films of Harmony Korine, director of Gummo, Spring Breakers and Mister Lonely, largely eschew plot in favour of vibe, and 2023's Aggro Dr1ft is a case in point. An experimental action film, it stars the Spanish actor Jordi Mollà as a hitman in a strange, neon-drenched underworld going about his violent work and navigating a personal crisis. Themes of existential dread, disorientation, and the uncertain boundary separating reality from fantasy are explored as Skrillex's intense soundtrack throbs over the deliberately contrived and repetitive dialogue and action.
Aggro Dr1ft's status as more "experience" than traditional film is sealed by being entirely filmed using infrared cameras, ratcheting the dreamlike, psychedelic weirdness to new heights. This summer, Korine underlined his view of the film as primarily an aesthetic experience by curating an exhibition in London based on stills from it. “We used a lot of chemicals to push the colours as far as we could," he explained proudly to an interviewer. "Until they basically corroded.”