Harmony Korine’s Baby Invasion: A Step Forward, But Still a Mess

Technically, Baby Invasion is a Screenlife experience

The unfolding footage is livestreamed with a scrolling chat bar and reduced aspect ratio. We watch “players” of an über-realistic virtual reality FPS where you’re supposed to break into wealthy residences and rob them blind. Unfortunately for the developers, their game, Baby Invasion, got leaked onto the Dark Web. Hypnotized users begin to blur digital universes and the game’s universe, meaning lunatics start “playing” Baby Invasion in real life. Presumably, that’s what we see. Or, we think we see. Coherency is not Korine’s motivation — filmic anarchy is his intention.

Harmony Korine’s Vision Is Neither Engaging Nor Surreal Enough

Baby Invasion is proudly created with artificial intelligence and video game engines, neither of which impress. Aside from the billions of reasons against featuring AI in motion pictures — which Korine clearly disagrees with — there’s a fakeness that’s never defiantly surreal. Usages are downright ugly, like those social media avatars we toyed around with for five minutes until we realized the apps were stealing our images for A.I. databases. Characters all sport these AI-generated baby faces as per the fake game’s title (as well as the film’s), which makes no compelling industry case for AI technology. Korine relies on software to distort his imagery instead of human artists, glossy and unappealing visuals with the numbing effect of CG novocaine.

Korine Once Again Is Doing His Best to be “Edgy”

That’s the ultimate frustration with Baby Invasion and EDGLRD thus far — there’s nothing edgy about its output. It’s a nonsense garble of sensory vibes that are toothless and unappealing: difference for the sake of being different. As a horror fan who’s seen the nastiest and most offensive home invasion narratives this side of Martyrs and Inside, none of that shock exists. Korine’s sludgy and fractured raver-kid delusion averts the camera from challenging material and refuses to engage beyond Mr. Yellow’s pool partying or scooter explorations. Whatever’s trying to be said about virtual and real-world violence melding into a dreadful conscious state or happiness through material vengeance is ridiculous. Mainly because Korine doesn’t want to engage with his horrors.

Conclusion

Baby Invasion is an upgrade from Aggro Dr1ft, but that’s by merely existing. Korine’s follow-up will see walkouts and standing ovations alike — it’ll probably play in a warehouse someday to an audience of ecstasy-doped crowds sucking on pacifiers and waving glowsticks. The problem is, for now, that it’s playing in movie theaters where it does not belong. Nor does Korine deliver on what’s promised in synopses tied to EDGLRD productions. It’s an 80-minute music video that can be summarized in a few screenshots, wanting to be something rebellious like Ilya Naishuller’s video for Biting Elbows’ “Bad Motherfucker,” but gets lost in its obnoxious Gen-Next sauce. Between picture-in-picture viewers, pop-up ads, reality posing as unreality, and a seconds-long attention span, Baby Invasion is a Reddit thread vision board with little to offer. I’m all for experimental cinema, and there’s a core concept about Baby Invasion that excites for a few minutes, but Korine’s latest won’t be what red-pills me into the EDGLRD camp.

FAQs

Q: What is Baby Invasion?
A: Baby Invasion is a first-person shooter that blends virtual universes and our reality.

Q: Is it a movie?
A: No, it’s an 80-minute music video that wants to be something rebellious like Ilya Naishuller’s video for Biting Elbows’ “Bad Motherfucker.”

Q: Is it worth watching?
A: No, it’s a nonsense garble of sensory vibes that are toothless and unappealing.