Laila Alderson (She/Her)
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Laila Alderson (she/her) is a writer at OutWrite. She is a third year Comparative Literature major, and she loves making and drinking cute little drinks (coffee, Arizona Arnold Palmer, sparkling mint limeade, etc.)

Queers Kill Cats, Too: A Review of “Gummo”

Harmony Korine’s 1997 directorial debut “Gummo” is one of those movies that gets swallowed up by its own images. More than any plot event, people remember “Gummo” for the bathtub spaghetti scene, the Bunny Boy’s hat, and the unique shape of Jacob Reynold’s head as Solomon on the film’s box art. This is strange, though, considering that the film itself aspires to be so much more. Revisiting “Gummo,” it reads as an attempt to address as many social and political issues as possible by slotting them into the film’s Midwestern setting. Over the course of its runtime, “Gummo” explores themes ranging from sexual assault to racism to misogyny to ableism and eventually to homophobia, transphobia, and beyond, all to wildly varying degrees of success.