This review is published as part of DraftKings Network’s 2023 New York Film Festival coverage.
“I am the world’s greatest assassin.” It’s one of the first lines from AGGRO DR1FT’s main character, BO (Jordi Mollà). He wants to clarify that he is excellent at what he does and loves his wife and child in a narration pattern echoing at specific points of the film. What is Harmony Korine’s AGGRO DR1FT exactly? Shot entirely through an infrared camera, Korine seeks to make you believe that the usual beautiful Miami landscape is an unconscionable landmass of hell and murder. For a period, it works – there are specific points where beasts and demons appear in an outline across the sky while dirty, murderous deeds are being done and appearing within the clothes of various assassins shown throughout the story.
Then that period wears off, and it could be the prolonged exposure to the mix of colors or the overpowering presence of music that does it. AGGRO DR1FT strives to capture the feeling of a somewhat open-world video game, rap video, and killer’s lament. But it is so aimless in achieving any of these things that it leaves the audience to bear with the style it presents. The crux of the plot is BO is tasked with killing someone called The Beast. It’s a man shown with demon-like wings and a ragged voice that moves around like an RPG NPC. He walks around with two katanas, humps the air, curses, and presumably calls BO a coward.
Is this just within BO’s mind? It’s not so sure. Half of the film is BO taking drives throughout Miami, gathering ammo, and speaking to his assassin protege Zion (Travis Scott) as he and his partners are on a boat partying with strippers. BO also cautions the audience never to look strippers in the eye – which is confusing because the characters in the film love their company. If you try to look at AGGRO DR1FT through the eyes of its flawed protagonist, the world at large could be the one he is presumably running from.
There’s a constant switch to particular moments of looking in on his family – his wife begging him to come home and his children playing near a pool. That’s as much of a plot anchor as you will get. Otherwise, no further indication is provided as to why BO is on this quest to stop this ultimate evil. Korine’s depiction of BO feels that he is also the agent of chaos, and it could presumably boil down to a linear path like the action-adventure games of old.
As I live and breathe, I’m unsure what to call AGGRO DR1FT. It’s not a feature film in the conventional sense, but rather a moving, flowing, frustrating piece of art that is enticing enough to witness. Guns, girls, macho energy, and regret radiate throughout what this is meant to be, and at least for that instance, it’s worth the look. BO tells us there’s “magic in this brutality,” as if he’s also trying to entice us to believe in this experiment. He craves love and light in the same token. As tedious as AGGRO DR1FT can feel, maybe the fragmented pieces need more attempts to come together in an idea box like this.
