Review: Aggro Dr1ft (2023)

Nashville product Harmony Korine has spent the last thirty years earning wonder and vitriol on the international film scene. But after the success of his megahit Spring Breakers in 2013, Korine began a years-long drift to Florida both physically and thematically. Korine’s time in the Sunshine State has souped up his predilection for provocation. And, if his new project, Aggro Dr1ft is any indication, he may be the filmmaker most adept at chronicling our cultural decline. 

To refer to Aggro Dr1ft as an arthouse movie is quite the misnomer. Though Spanish actor Jordi Mollà and rapper Travis Scott give their all as two hitmen in the seedier streets of Miami going through existential crises, Korine’s thin plot and generic dialogue intentionally serve as a barrier to notions of traditional performance. Shot entirely with infrared cameras and enhanced by A.I. to look like a mid-aughts video game based on Dante’s Inferno, the movie seemingly strips away all nuance.

Yet such is the point. Korine may always seem to be wallowing in decay, but he’s on a search for meaning in a time bereft of the spiritual. Consequently, Aggro Dr1ft relishes its contradictions. Its heat signature imagery is lifeless yet pulsing with life. Its video game aesthetic seems simplistic but interrogates the complicity of an audience who views life through their gaming consoles. Its Miami is an unrelenting Sodom but its last images of the city end with the words “Love is God. God is Love.” Most importantly, it's a movie one immediately wants to end, but will still be thinking about for days to come.

Aggro Dr1ft screens through Saturday at The Belcourt.