Harmony Korine began his film career early on, gaining recognition for the script he wrote for Larry Clark's Kids while still a teenager. Despite a shared interest in the seedier things in life, Korine’s own films were a complete departure, borrowing more from video collage and the Dogme movement, but with his own distinctly American touches and a carnival approach to filmmaking which suggests things are never quite as they seem. Trash Humpers, Korine’s most recent effort (which recently screened at the New York Film Festival) is also his most experimental, and if you're familiar with past works like Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy in particular, you’ll know that means it's pretty weird.

There’s been a tendency in some of the writing about Trash Humpers to consider it a kind of back-to-basics film for director Harmony Korine. I don’t entirely agree with this -- there’s more variety in his work than people give him credit for -- except to the extent that it clearly inhabits the same filthy suburban demimonde that Korine first limned in 1997’s Gummo. The familiar parking lots, back alleys, and low-rent tract houses from that film are here being ransacked by a quartet of feckless, giggling assholes with the bodies of boys and the faces of geezers. But the look of the picture is very different, which his to say deliberately shitty. Anyone who thought some of his work unpolished before will have to reset the bar. Trash Humpers was shot on dated VHS equipment.

So the trailer (though some might debate whether it deserves to be so called) for Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers has debuted on the web. If you haven’t heard of Trash Humpers, you’re not alone. A little over a month ago, fans and web-watchers alike were somewhat confounded when it was announced that perennial provocateur Korine had completed a new film in time for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. No one, it seems, had heard even a whisper about the production. And yet only a few days later, the New York Film Festival added the film to its roster as well. What gives?

News came (heh, heh) recently that art-house legend Peter Greenaway has begun casting for his next film. Nothing surprising here, except that Greenaway (whose A Zed & Two Noughts is a staggering, symmetrical exploration of entropy and one of the pinnacles of contemporary cinema -- not to mention the closest any filmmaker has gotten to replicating the magic of Vermeer’s lighting) has allegedly asked potential female stars the following two questions: "Would you be willing to have unsimulated intercourse on screen?" and "Would you be willing to appear in a shot in which semen leaks out of your vagina?" Rarely do acclaimed directors incorporate full-on home-stealing into their films, but it’s certainly happened before. (Here’s looking at you, Mr. John Cameron Mitchell.)

Scott Osman, or “Scotto” as everyone knows him, is one of those eternally young club types. He’s been around for as long as I can remember. I think I fired him more than any other employee I ever had, which, of course, means that I also hired him more than anyone else. I interviewed Scotto because he has traveled beyond the club scene, and his work has taken him as far as getting within couple of feet of Barack Obama during the inauguration -- with security clearance to boot. This begs the question: What’s wrong with the Secret Service, or what’s right with clubs?

● Tom Ford has never been subtle, so it's no surprise he chose to open his namesake boutique directly across from his former design home, Gucci, on Rodeo Drive. [LATimesBlog]
● Hugh Jackman has dropped out of discussions for Cleo, Steven Soderbergh's 3-D live-action Elvis-style musical about Cleopatra and her lover Marc Antony. Not gay enough? [Variety]
● The International Center of Photography will debut a yearlong series of exhibits dedicated to fashion photography. [WWD]

For quite some time, things weren’t looking good for Harmony Korine, the 35-year-old writer of Kids and experimental director behind dogmatic and divisive films like Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy. But, rather triumphantly, he overcame a crippling drug addiction and was welcomed back into the spotlight with last year’s heartbreaking Mister Lonely, his first feature in eight years. He just released The Collected Fanzines (Drag City), a series of eight amateur publications that were produced over the past 15 years, which feature musings, ramblings and Matt Dillon’s old phone number. Here, the ultimate bad-boy of American cinema, unleashed.

Harmony Korine made a staggering comeback from the brink of self-destruction and incoherence with this year's Mister Lonely, a cinematic wormhole filled with celebrity impersonators, free-falling nuns, and talking eggs. It was his return to filmmaking after an eight-year hiatus following the release of the divisive (some say misanthropic) Julien Donkey-Boy. Expectations weren't exactly high for the bad-boy of American cinema. Expectations were embarrassingly off the mark.

Here's the trailer to a new documentary starring directors Harmony Korine and Mike Mills, and artists like Barry McGee and Ed Templeton. We can't wait until its August release!

A taste of good taste from our panel of stylish high-profiles. Here, a few of their favorite things.

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“My favorite design is a cement parking lot curb. I used to steal them and bring them home. I enjoyed dancing on them. A good tap shoe can make a great noise on this kind of curb. When I got married last year, I made sure that the preacher was standing on one. Sometimes, when I’m alone, I stare at my curb collection. It is arguably the best curb collection in America. I’m not sure who first designed a parking lot curb, but I heard rumors his name was Ricardo.” —Harmony Korine, director