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IMDbPro

Kuso

  • 20172017
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 34m
IMDb RATING
4.8/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
Kuso (2017)
AnimationComedyDrama
Events unfold after a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles.Events unfold after a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles.Events unfold after a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles.
IMDb RATING
4.8/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
    • Flying Lotus
    • David Firth
    • Flying Lotus
  • Stars
    • Hannibal Buress
    • George Clinton
    • David Firth
    • Flying Lotus
    • David Firth
    • Flying Lotus
  • Stars
    • Hannibal Buress
    • George Clinton
    • David Firth
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 27User reviews
    • 47Critic reviews
    • 51Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:19
    Watch Official Trailer
    Sundance Trailer
    Trailer 1:06
    Watch Sundance Trailer

    Photos6

    Kuso (2017)
    Tim Heidecker in Kuso (2017)
    Kuso (2017)
    Kuso (2017)
    Kuso (2017)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Hannibal Buress
    Hannibal Buress
    George Clinton
    George Clinton
    • Doctor Clinton
    David Firth
    David Firth
    • Royal
    Arden Banks
    Arden Banks
    • Desmond
    Byron Bowers
    Byron Bowers
    • Roach Man (segment "Sock")
    Shane Carpenter
    Shane Carpenter
    • Charlie
    Angel Deradoorian
    • Charlie
    • (voice)
    Regan Farquhar
    • News Pirate
    Pretty Ricki Fontaine
    • Jenny
    Zack Fox
    Zack Fox
    • Manuel
    Tim Heidecker
    Tim Heidecker
    • Phil
    Bob Heslip
    • Bob
    Anders Holm
    Anders Holm
    • Teacher (segment "Smear")
    Sandra R. Kisling
    • Michelle
    Mali Matsuda
    Mali Matsuda
    • Angel
    Matthew J. McCarthy
    Matthew J. McCarthy
    • Mazu (segment "Mr. Quiggle")
    • (as Matt McCarthy)
    Hugh Moore
    Hugh Moore
    • News Anchor #1
    Michael Pratt
    • Mike
      • Flying Lotus
      • David Firth
      • Flying Lotus
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Received a large number of walkouts at Sundance and was deemed in an article written for Verge as "The grossest movie ever made."
    • Connections
      References Beetlejuice (1988)

    User reviews27

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    6/10
    Displeasing, unwatchable, ugly, basically it's quite fun
    Kuso is one of the most displeasing and unwatchable films of recent times and this was precisely its point. It is directed and scored by rapper Flying Lotus (plus some aptly used Aphex Twin and Akira Yamaoka), features David Firth of 'Salad Fingers' fame as well as some deranged animation of said Flash artist (Firth and FlyLo have worked together in the past and not just when they appeared on the same radio station in GTA V) and also, Hannibal Buress, George Clinton and (unsurprisingly) Tim Heidecker are in it. Already there's a lot to unpack but we're just getting started.

    The film is a series of sketches which Simon Abrams of rogerebert.com describes as "a variety show from another planet". Alas, he also calls it "too proudly low-brow to be considered art gallery material" and there may be something to it. I am usually a connoisseur of anti-art and the grotesque, but a very unique talent is required to make something wonderful out of something intentionally revolting and/or bad. Had Kuso been less aggressive towards the audience and more concerned with exploring its own unspeakable universe, I'm convinced I would have liked it even more. Yes, I said "even more".

    The segments we see are only connected insofar as they all feature the malformed American humans who have survived an apocalyptic disaster. Even as I knew this detail before seeing it, I still couldn't make much sense of the things I was seeing. They also don't happen one at a time, like in an anthology, but are rather spliced together with the occasional break for in-universe TV clips, surreal cartoons (many of these bits are where Firth comes in, and are usually the funnier parts of the film) and equally strange news reports on the disaster. There is also some confusion as to what's taking place within the film's "real" world and which bits are a story-within-a-story. One of the segments appears as a video game in another one, for example.

    We meet all sorts of fascinating beings, most of whom look like they should just be put out of their misery. There is a black couple performing scarcely arousing sexual acts on one another, a mentally broken Asian woman who loses her "baby" behind fallen rubble as the voice of God (Firth again, I think) guides her through horrific portals and strange shapes, there is the small man with bowel issues who attends a private school in the woods where he also discovers a distinctly anus-looking creature (I dare not reveal how these two bond), there is the eccentric abortion doctor (Clinton) who will surely cure your fear of boobs, and also there's the female rapper who shares a crib with two inter-dimensional stoner lifeforms (Hannibal Buress and Donnell Rawlings). Because of course she does.

    It's been noted that this film draws inspiration from all sorts of similarly grotesque and surreal works, including but not limited to Naked Lunch (consider the frequent use of insects and/or creatures that resemble human orifices), Crispin Glover's It trilogy, and the works of Cronenberg, Giger, and Jodorowsky in general (all three have a fascination with either straight-up body horror or just deformities in general). Beyond all that, there's a sense that this is approximately what a feature film adaptation of The Eric André Show would look like (particularly the scenes with Busdriver). Make what you will of that.

    I ultimately enjoyed watching Kuso. I loved the music, I found most of the effects and animations as interesting as they were beautifully unpleasant, and I liked a lot of the designs. All of this stuff had potential; it's just that, perhaps, it wasn't in quite the right hands and could have benefited from not being incoherent on purpose. I don't know how much sense this statement makes but it feels like Kuso should have been a film that serves to invite and engulf those who wish to see something this disturbing, and not stick it to those who don't.

    It's a shame, since my favorite films are normally those that do things no other films dare to do, as is often the case with Kuso. But it does often play like a less funny and in some ways less horrifying Eric André Show or Steve Brule, and it does go too over-the-top for its own good (certain bits are effectively scary until yet another cartoon sound effect is played, which works as a jarring tonal inconsistency as opposed to an amusing defiance of conventions). Let me put it this way: just because no-one else has filmed a scene where a man rubs his semen in the mutated face of his lover before kissing her in an extreme close-up or a scene where FlyLo hallucinates his way through a breast-dimension, doesn't mean someone had to.

    FlyLo boasts that "only 20 people" walked out during its initial screening at Sundance in January. At the time of this writing, it is available on Shudder and on home video discs. Do what you must.
    helpful•9
    4
    • TheVictoriousV
    • Jan 19, 2018

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 21, 2017 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Production company
      • Brainfeeder Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 34 minutes
      • Color

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