During the opening production logos before Aggro Dr1ft, a bizarre logo flashed that I didn’t recognize at all. I would later find out it’s the logo for EDGLRD, director Harmony Korine’s new multimedia group, and I could not have been less surprised at the name. Korine has made a long-lasting career out of getting a rise of audiences ever since he burst on the scene in the late 90s with indie flicks like Gummo, Julian Donkey-Boy and the literally-named Trash Humpers.
Even his brief foray into the mainstream with The Beach Bum and Spring Breakers (the latter of his, the only movie of his I’ve loved to date) felt like provocations to the general audience. With his new film Aggro Dr1ft, unless you’re someone who already worships the altar of Korine, prepare to be annoyed all over again.
“Aggro Dr1ft’s main hook is in its visual style.”
The “plot” of Aggro Dr1ft follows a middle-aged assassin named BO (Jordi Molla) and his mission to take out his next target, a crime boss known as The Beast, we see as either a hulking brute with a samurai sword or a giant horned demon. The word plot is used very loosely here, as there isn’t much of one in the traditional sense.
The movie mostly just follows BO as he drives around Miami towards his objective while delivering soliloquies about either being the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest assassin” or how much he loves his family and wants to return to them. The only break in this “story” is a small scene where BO talks to a fellow assassin, the snake-tongued Zion (Travis Scott), but that scene also feels inconsequential to anything afterwards.
I don’t have anything against a movie operating mostly on vibes rather than story, but there’s very little to grasp onto outside its main hook. Aggro Dr1ft’s main hook is in its visual style. The entire film was shot with infrared cameras, using a thermal effect alongside AI enhancements; skeleton textures will suddenly appear on bodies, dead bodies will suddenly grow dark as life fades, and horned masks will appear like Snapchat filters.
It’s a truly unique look that had me captivated…for about ten minutes. After that, everything starts to blur together, and there are only so many times you can see the same repetitive shots of guys aiming their guns or strippers twerking a dozen times before you realize that’s all the movie really has for 82 minutes.
It’s hard to call Aggro Dr1ft a movie, partially because Korine barely even calls it one himself. Aggro Dr1ft feels like a deliberate parody of video games, but more specifically, the video game aesthetic. Most of the speaking characters speak in a flat, tinny tone that sounds like a side character in Grand Theft Auto III, giving you a mission objective. Female characters are over-sexualized, and every male character is hypermasculine to unintentionally comedic levels.
“Aggro Dr1ft feels like a deliberate parody of video games, but more specifically, the video game aesthetic.”
Even Bo’s soliloquies he gives throughout feel like repetitive catchphrases you would hear a protagonist make. While all of these could seem interesting concepts, the movie meanders so much that by the time it reaches its brief conclusion you’ll have more than likely completely checked out. Even the brief bits of action that happen feel dull and detached.
I respect whenever a movie is legitimately trying something different, but the times I am most annoyed by a film is when I feel like my time is actively being wasted watching it. Aggro Dr1ft is a perfect example of both those things. Then again, that was probably Korine’s whole point.
