Set in Xenia, Ohio, years after a tornado left the town scarred and hollowed out, the film drifts through fragments of lives on the margins: children hunting stray cats for pocket money, teenagers drifting through vacant streets, families scraping together moments of joy amid poverty and decay. Narrative dissolves into a collage of fleeting images and overheard voices, shaping a portrait at once intimate and alien. 

Shot with a mix of lo-fi immediacy and dreamlike invention, Gummo finds its poetry in the overlooked and ordinary—the clutter of a bedroom, the sound of a hymn, the glow of television static. Korine captures the textures of forgotten America without judgment, uncovering beauty, humor, and fragility in the most unlikely of places. 

Still one of the most polarizing debuts in American cinema, Gummo remains a singular work of raw invention—an unforgettable trip through the backroads of a country we’re rarely asked to see.