AGGRO DR1FT Is Anti-Hollywood (But In A Good Way)

AGGRO DR1FT is Anti-Hollywood but in a good way. It might not be a good movie, but it does have something interesting to say.

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, AGGRO DR1FT recently screened at the New York Film Festival and despite over a dozen people walking out of the theater while it was still playing, the film does have something interesting to say — if you stick around long enough to finish it.

The plot itself is not good. To put it simply, there is not much about this movie that is good. That said, the thought behind it carries through the entire runtime.

The main character BO (played by Jordi Molia) is not intriguing in the slightest. Unfortunately that also goes for the entire story. The film follows BO on his journey to slay a demonic crime lord. The filmmaking itself is never quite focused on the characters, as it focuses more on their surroundings.

The extravagant scenery of Miami can be identified even through the infrared visuals which is why the stupidity of the film works. The plot is very simple but again it is the film’s last priority – at the same time the minimal plot is why it feels so maximal in its message. The message never seems to be about religion or family, but instead to send a statement to other filmmakers in the world.

This might sound like a broken record, but the movie itself is not good. At all. Yet I left slightly interested, yearning for more seemingly idiotic filmmaking. The word idiotic feels perfect because this film feels anti-film. Like it is idiotic on purpose.

The entire experience is based on other elements of media. For starters the elephant in the room, the entire film being shot with an infrared camera, it gave me a massive headache and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t on the brink of walking out near the end.

Director Harmony Korine takes visual hell a step further by distorting the images even more. Taking out all detail, he makes the film look fully computer generated at times. Stepping back and looking at the project as a whole I do see his vision a little more.

This video game-esque element to the filmmaking opens my eyes to the idea Korine was going for but getting into my right mind again, the entire movie is stupid.

Though everything we have covered so far might sound insane, the aspect that furthest pushed my mind was the priority of violence in this film. The entire plot revolves around a hit-man, his crew, a random demon boss, and his family. Thematically some strings are started but god knows where they go 5 minutes after they are introduced. There is a lot of abstract gore yet that is not what stuck with me after watching the film.

The final ‘boss fight’, yes it feels like a video game boss fight, was filled with abstract gore but throughout the film the demon humping the air, BO’s significant other twerking every 5 minutes and Travis Scott asking if Julius Caesar wrote the bible felt like brain itching moments. It was not the idea of these all being stupid that itches my brain but the idea of their purpose and priority in filmmaking.

AGGRO DR1FT feels so anti-film but pro-filmmaking because it decides to not care. The director said, “I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be its own statement” – and he did not lie. The film is a statement and maybe the next director who shoots for the moon with absurdity should reel it back just a little, but this is I believe the push we needed.

All in all I really wanted to love AGGRO DR1FT, I was waiting for it to click but it is just not good… but that is okay. It is stupid and dumb, sense cannot be made of what is on screen, yet I walked out excited to see what this inspires.

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