Act Da Fool

 

When you’re black, one must be a fool or at least act da fool, for the world expects it. Little swarthy Jewish auteur filmmaker Harmony Korine was searching for cinematic truth(s) when he directed the short Act Da Fool starring a unconsciously charming debutante Negress and her home girls. Despite being one the best moving picture pieces Harmony Korine has ever directed (surely better than the entire film Mister Lonely), he made this Negrophile short film for the Woman’s clothing and accessory company Proenza Schouler, known for making deals with high-priced Hollywood cunts like Kirsten Dunst, Julianne Moore, and Korine’s ex-girlfriend Chloe Sevigny. One can only wonder whether or not Korine decided to direct a group of 40oz. malt liquor drinking and horsehair-weave-wearing black girls sporting ultra-hip femme wear in hopes of tainting the name of Proenza Schouler and those ladies (especially Sevigny) who just happen to dress in that kind of crucial corporate-gal clothing. If Harmony Korine were to be critiqued solely in regards to his ability as a creative advertiser, he has given Proenza Schouler a certain authenticity that seemed next to impossible and has given evidence that a true artist can make good use of even the most dubious of projects.

 

One of the things that makes Harmony Korine a standout auteur is his ability to capture American truths and trends in places most Americans, especially film directors, consciously (and subconsciously) ignore. Whereas some bigwig blockbuster filmmaker hack like James Cameron puts tons of money into an aesthetically-synthetic film to make it look “out of this world” usually resulting in a movie that is unrelentingly boring, Korine takes the most common and realistic subcultures of America (especially rural America) that are so bizarre they border on the surreal, creating true Americana art on a welfare budget. In the short film Act Da Fool, we are introduced to a black girl who talks about aspects of her day-to-day life. She and her skinny black girlfriends have very long legs, like those of a doe deer that are further accentuated by a pair of high-heeled shoes that resemble hooves. This girl proclaims, “I like the way animals hangout in the trash in parking lots,” and she does the same with her friends, representing a true display of walking-the-talk.

 

Despite acknowledging her admiration and respect for the way animals hangout in trash in parking lots, the black girl also states negatively of herself and friends, “We can act like wild animals, we can do some messed up shit.” To the girl and her friends credit, they do not kill people or smoke crack in the parking lot, they merely drink 40oz. Malt liquor and tag graffiti on the side on dumpsters, making use of the few very things they have in life and creating their own postmodern nihilistic (not even knowing what the word means) realities. Despite what some spineless whites see as negative stereotypes in Act Da Fool, one would have to be a fool not to see Korine’s objective neutrality, if not total respect towards these black girls. Personally, I have never found any black girl to be appealing in my life but in Act Da Fool it is apparent that Korine made sure to find the best crème of the crop Negro genetics, the kind of healthy Negroid phenotypes a person can only find in rural America. I am afraid it seems that most city blacks have ruined their gene pools by partaking in crack, social welfare, government housing, and the worst junk foods imaginable (or at least more so than their rural brothas). 

Harmony Korine has certainly followed in his Jewish Godmother Diane Arbus’s legacy of capturing the wonderful and vibrant realism that is often ignored in America. Not that I can say I am a connoisseur of Rap/Hip-Hop videos but with Act Da Fool Harmony Korine has given the ultimate justice to the young Negress and her own distinct beauty, especially when one considers that not one gigantic shaking ass (like your typical Rap video) is shown in the short film because Harmony Korine ain’t no fool but a documenter of a world very few people have a personal perceptive lens for and that is harmful Harmony’s greatest gift as one of America’s greatest modern auteur filmmakers. Apparently, the black church used to be the backbone and support network of the Afro-American community, as the great black Reverend James David Manning has stated time and time again. The female narrator of Act Da Fool states passionately, “I ain’t goin’ to church no more, church can suck it.” Instead of the Church, these blacks girls now have a parking lot and instead of holy water they have the liquid golden calf of malt liquor. These Negresses may be living in the time of collective Negro-nihilism and regressive degeneration but as the young narrator states, “The stars ain’t never gonna leave us.” 

-Ty E