User reviews

If you like pure experimental trash, you have here something to enjoy. Don't expect any coherence, it's just a stream of weirdness happening after a mysterious earthquake, that gave to almost all humans some pimples all over the face. You have 3D cartoons (something between Terry Gilliam and Cool 3D World), multi-dimensional roommates, strange foreplay and you will know what's hiding in George Clinton's colon. Don't take it too seriously and you'll have lots of fun !

Kuso is one of the most displeasing and unwatchable films of recent times and this was precisely its point. It is directed and scored by rapper Flying Lotus (plus some aptly used Aphex Twin and Akira Yamaoka), features David Firth of 'Salad Fingers' fame as well as some deranged animation of said Flash artist (Firth and FlyLo have worked together in the past and not just when they appeared on the same radio station in GTA V) and also, Hannibal Buress, George Clinton and (unsurprisingly) Tim Heidecker are in it. Already there's a lot to unpack but we're just getting started.

The film is a series of sketches which Simon Abrams of rogerebert.com describes as "a variety show from another planet". Alas, he also calls it "too proudly low-brow to be considered art gallery material" and there may be something to it. I am usually a connoisseur of anti-art and the grotesque, but a very unique talent is required to make something wonderful out of something intentionally revolting and/or bad. Had Kuso been less aggressive towards the audience and more concerned with exploring its own unspeakable universe, I'm convinced I would have liked it even more. Yes, I said "even more".

The segments we see are only connected insofar as they all feature the malformed American humans who have survived an apocalyptic disaster. Even as I knew this detail before seeing it, I still couldn't make much sense of the things I was seeing. They also don't happen one at a time, like in an anthology, but are rather spliced together with the occasional break for in-universe TV clips, surreal cartoons (many of these bits are where Firth comes in, and are usually the funnier parts of the film) and equally strange news reports on the disaster. There is also some confusion as to what's taking place within the film's "real" world and which bits are a story-within-a-story. One of the segments appears as a video game in another one, for example.

We meet all sorts of fascinating beings, most of whom look like they should just be put out of their misery. There is a black couple performing scarcely arousing sexual acts on one another, a mentally broken Asian woman who loses her "baby" behind fallen rubble as the voice of God (Firth again, I think) guides her through horrific portals and strange shapes, there is the small man with bowel issues who attends a private school in the woods where he also discovers a distinctly anus-looking creature (I dare not reveal how these two bond), there is the eccentric abortion doctor (Clinton) who will surely cure your fear of boobs, and also there's the female rapper who shares a crib with two inter-dimensional stoner lifeforms (Hannibal Buress and Donnell Rawlings). Because of course she does.

It's been noted that this film draws inspiration from all sorts of similarly grotesque and surreal works, including but not limited to Naked Lunch (consider the frequent use of insects and/or creatures that resemble human orifices), Crispin Glover's It trilogy, and the works of Cronenberg, Giger, and Jodorowsky in general (all three have a fascination with either straight-up body horror or just deformities in general). Beyond all that, there's a sense that this is approximately what a feature film adaptation of The Eric André Show would look like (particularly the scenes with Busdriver). Make what you will of that.

I ultimately enjoyed watching Kuso. I loved the music, I found most of the effects and animations as interesting as they were beautifully unpleasant, and I liked a lot of the designs. All of this stuff had potential; it's just that, perhaps, it wasn't in quite the right hands and could have benefited from not being incoherent on purpose. I don't know how much sense this statement makes but it feels like Kuso should have been a film that serves to invite and engulf those who wish to see something this disturbing, and not stick it to those who don't.

It's a shame, since my favorite films are normally those that do things no other films dare to do, as is often the case with Kuso. But it does often play like a less funny and in some ways less horrifying Eric André Show or Steve Brule, and it does go too over-the-top for its own good (certain bits are effectively scary until yet another cartoon sound effect is played, which works as a jarring tonal inconsistency as opposed to an amusing defiance of conventions). Let me put it this way: just because no-one else has filmed a scene where a man rubs his semen in the mutated face of his lover before kissing her in an extreme close-up or a scene where FlyLo hallucinates his way through a breast-dimension, doesn't mean someone had to.

FlyLo boasts that "only 20 people" walked out during its initial screening at Sundance in January. At the time of this writing, it is available on Shudder and on home video discs. Do what you must.

As we progress in the movie world, we also progress in the setting new bars or rather lows for taste. So this one is testing the lows in a movie that is really hard to describe. There are a couple of short stories and they are all connected by a various degree of disgusting images. Not the same images mind you, different ones for every story.

There is sexual images, there is all sorts of disgusting things that some people may not be able to stomach. It could go further, but it's ok it didn't. There are some interesting characters though and the movie has a couple of moments of inventiveness. If those are enough to outweigh your disgust? That's up to you to decide. Also there is some pseudo intellectual speeches at the beginning and at the end of the movie ... it's actually really a hard movie to judge, because it does not fit in any category at all ...

These kind of movies which are disgusting and bizzare, no scenario no script nothing are must to be stopped!

Of course everyone's here for the freak show, for their fill of the weirdest stomach-turning s*** they can find because the bar's getting very goddamn high. That's not the problem. The problem is that this movie is utterly INCOHERENT.

It's like one of those bizarre porn comics where you find something "interesting" on the cover so you give it a go but there's a lot of other equally weird yet completely "uninteresting-to-you" things you have to sift through. So you patiently flip the pages trying to figure out how THIS leads to THAT. You try to zoom in to read the microscopic text and after too much trouble to read some blurry lines you realize its meaningless word diarhhea that does nothing for you.

I guess its fine if it doesn't get on your nerves. Which this does in the first minute. A guy sings a truly atrocious 'song' with an abominable 'accompaniment' of jazz for way too long. Another guy talks loudly in a grating voice about nonsense as his paper-animated body is shown scratching itself and holding a phone for WAY TOO LONG.

TLDR; I didn't have the patience to bear the ear rape and the eye exercise. Maybe you do.

Holy !@#$!@#$ that was probably the most disgusting movie I've ever seen and I consider myself well versed in revolting movies.

Scene after scene of people smearing poo and cum on themselves. It really is almost scat porn at times.

Apparently this was "directed" by Flying Lotus but it feels like an anthology movie by multiple directors working separately. Seems like the only instructions were: "there was an earthquake and now everyone has zits... be incredibly vulgar". Then they cut the resulting short films up and mixed it together a little.

The second half of the movie is much stronger than the first. There's more narrative, and there's more humour. If you are thinking of switching off after fifteen minutes due to lack of plot you should probably persevere.

Be ready to rinse your eyes out afterwards.

The movie tumbled downstairs, laughing more hysterically with every baleful impact, then rose to its feet and walked casually into the wilderness. The creative team behind this movie did not do anything creative, did not "go weird but purposefully", and was actually so frenetically demented that the odyssey was humdrum. The movie is a monotonous, one-dimensional trick shot that keeps getting thrown but never goes through the hoop - just lands with a deflated FLUP! every time. BUMMER.

Imagine if you will a quiet dinner with some Harkonnen's, The Cronenberg's, George Clinton and Pier Paolo Pasolini, after the appetizer course everyone drops the Brown Acid and decides to watch a Tool music video which leads to a full blown orgy - picture this and you have the essence of Kuso in a nutshell.

An off-the-wall experimental film which borrows from Terry Gilliam, Cronenberg, Tool, Pasolini, Lynch and Holmes to name a few. Hard to watch, but harder to turn away, a vision of a dystonia you wouldn't want to take your kids to but you wouldn't mind watching a reality show about.

Literally, movie is obsessed with feces. It's like a bad acid trip took a dump on your face. This review is required to contain at least 150 characters, but that's all I really have to say.

If you are familiar with Flying Lotus' music, then it shouldn't be surprising that his debut film shares many similar qualities to his music. It's experimental, unique, strange, beautiful, unpredictable, challenging, abstract, and technically great. He made a film that is unlike anything I have ever seen. It is a surreal ride through multiple story lines that are barely comprehensible. It's also surprisingly hilarious and disturbing. Sometimes both at the same time. Fans of experimental film should definitely check this out. It's definitely an acquired taste. Most people will probably hate it but you should still give it a shot if you are on the fence. Watch something different.

"Kuso" is probably unlike any film I've ever seen. How do I even describe it? Well, it's repulsive, surreal, bizarre, unpredictable, and kinda fascinating, but also kinda tedious. I didn't really like how gross it was, but I was able to get through the whole thing. There's at least one scene where it looks like a small rod had been inserted into a penis and I looked away because it was just too unpleasant to look at.

I think the film is trying to be funny, but I wasn't laughing. I did laugh after it ended, though. I guess you could call it an anthology film that contains both animation and live action. The animation is particularly strange. I really don't know how to describe it, but a whole lot of effort was probably put into it. One of the stories is about a boy/man soiling himself during a class that's in a forest. His classmates laugh at him and he leaves. He then feeds a giant rock or something that looks like it has an anus. What does he feed it? Feces, apparently. Another story involves a woman choking a man while he masturbates in bed. He later has oral sex with a talking boil on her body. Do I need to write more about the film's stories?

"Kuso" is something you dare a friend of yours to watch. I'm not sure if it's the grossest film I've ever seen. "Dead Alive" might be grosser. "Kuso" seems like it's weird and disgusting for the sake of being weird and disgusting. I can't say that I like it, but I admire it at least to some degree.

Coming at you like a mutant fusion of David Lynch and that one friend in high school who would find the grossest things on the internet and make you watch, this movie knows no limits and has as such expanded my personal understanding of how messed up a movie could be. There are some moments of genuine comedy gold, and a few scenes of delicious absurdism that rival Lynch's most off the wall arthouse antics, but also a lot of sophomoric scatological nonsense that pushes your buttons just to watch you squirm. I can't help but admire how far it chose to push things, even if I may never chose to watch it again.

Failed attempt at experimental film making. I love bizarre & unusual films, but I ask that they give me something for the time I dedicate to watch them. Kuso makes Begotten look like Citizen Kane. I understand why people walked out on this film at Sundance. It was bad & they wished they had payed to see it so they ask for their money back.

I wish I could find a petition to delete all copies of this disgusting nonsense. I honestly can not understand in any way how/what people like about this ... this ... I cannot even find words.

Not funny or scary enough, just lame and gross...pass

I Don't know who the target audience for this noxious piece of trash; but, it wasn't me. I Strongly suspect that somebody had either taken some ilegal substances; or, some poor, dumb studio executive had some money to burn. The gross level went up a notch with each segment. But, what really angered me, was that this was shown on a streaming service that folks pay for. I Really felt sorry for everyone that was involved in making this rank, piece of trash. A dumpster fire at best. I Wouldn't even rent this on a drunken dare. IN Short;Kuso is one of the worst movies i have ever seen. Perfect for those with a subscription to Heavy Metal magazine.

A film that manages to entertain and engross almost entirely on imagery alone. It's the epitome of film that some will call worthless, pretentious, arty trash and others will build a shrine for. It defies nearly all standard film/storytelling conventions, but was able to keep me interested just in pure anticipation of what grotesque and warped image might assault my eyes next. There are some sequences in this film that I have no hope of ever being able to wipe from my mind, and I consider that a success in of itself. However, I can't say the film involved me to a great degree on an intellectual level. There's clearly a hefty helping of social commentary swirling around in here, a great deal of which is quite humorous, but it just doesn't culminate into something coherent or satisfying. Perhaps it could've benefited from slightly more focus or narrative, but it's hard to offer such a criticism to a film which is clearly uninterested in anything of the sort. I can definitely respect that uncompromising approach even if the final product didn't fully resonate with me. It's definitely worth checking out for the pure sensory experience so long as you can tolerate the highly graphic content.

Strong 3.5/5

I went into this actually kind of excited to see how "weird" it would be, but this movie is just gross. Like some scenes are kinda funny and I can see a point to... some of it, but most of it is just gross and surreal just for the sake of it. I would not consider this movie even really an anthology, like the stories "like" together, but not in any way I would consider coherent. Also did I mention this movie is just gross. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of dark and sometimes kind of gross movies and things, but this movie is just going too far. It's just shock for shock value, brings up very touchy subjects (which doesn't bother me) and just uses them in such trashy and unnecessary situations.

This movie basically screams "related to my interests." It's a surreal horror-comedy anthology directed by Flying Lotus and David Frith, with music by FlyLo, the Silent Hill guy, and Aphex freaking Twin, among others. And apparently a good amount of people walked out during the Sundance screening. How could that not be of interest to me?

I should start with my one major gripe. The first 26 minutes (barring the Busdriver opening) feel quite sluggish, especially with the segment "Smear." After the short, but typically disturbing game show parody, the film picks up drastically. There are other parts of the movie where the pacing grinds to a halt, but none last longer than a couple minutes.

The movie is littered with weird bits of animation. Not just by FlyLo and Frith, but also from (among others) Jimmy ScreamerClauz of "Where The Dead Go To Die" infamy and Cool 3D World, who usually rests in the weird part of Youtube. These passages certainly add to the already surreal nature of this film.

The visual effects here are also pretty good. There are some that are obviously animated, but a lot of them are practical. I wish there was a behind-the-scenes feature, so I could know just how some of those...things are made.

And the soundtrack, as expected, is very good. With such musicians as the ones I've listed above, how could it not?

It should explicitly be noted that this is not for the faint of heart, and ESPECIALLY not for those with a weak stomach. People walked out of this movie for a damn good reason. Basically every bodily fluid that exists is spewed out in spades. Not one human being in this film looks completely normal. Every time you think you've seen the most messed up scene here, you get proven dead wrong. I don't know if this is the grossest movie out there like some people claim it is, but it certainly is the grossest movie I've personally seen.

So yeah, this movie can best be described as "a thing". And it's a thing I can't get enough of. I should also note that, as of right now, there isn't any physical release of this movie out. Apparently FlyLo sold some DVD copies at his live shows, but otherwise, nada. Instead, it got released through Shudder. I didn't even know Shudder was a thing until I found that out. Even after 5 years, nothing.

And now the review: David Frith real life salad fingers would've been better but I digress. Now really the review: Disgustipated, an amalgam of yuk set after a earth quake in L.A. A thoroughly original vision of it's poor, puss filled, ejaculate( in one area of this) , surreal yet cosmic gross fest. Hmm, interested ? Yup I knew it much as well peruse this brain vomit. Just because it's like anything you've ever seen esp on "Shudder" . So pleasant 🤢 dreams

I thought people where being dramatic about this movie. Nope, never again, this was so bad it gave me flashbacks to 2007 when 2 girls 1 cup when viral and 9 year old me watched it. The effects are pretty cool though, but other then that, This movie is just vile. Nothing else to say. 2/10, I'm gonna go throw up now.

I had the opportunity to watch it with Flying Lotus himself, who then answered some questions and explained how this represented his fears, basically. An utter combination of nonsense and disgust that ended up making me laugh multiple times (animations were pretty cool though). I even felt like needing a shower after watching it. It's nauseating and I loved it.

First, this movie is an expiremental, incoherent, silly, and very very yucky body horror fantasy film. The acting is mostly very cartoonish and silly. Some of the acting was great, but mostly just cartoonish. The graphics are great and all over the place. You have a lot of practical effect, cgi, animation. This movie is super gross. It feels like an adult swim horror film with Cronenber-like effects.

Okay, all that being said, this movie felt like it could be way more than it was. It didn't really take itself seriously at all. It could have taken itself very seriously and had been a great film. There are very beautiful scenes. Especially the little guy with the triangle head that goes into the forest. The serious tones could have worked, and if it wasn't so goofy it could have been a great film. Like, the Tim Heidecker scenes really take you out of world and into a typically Tim and eric skit. He's a terrible actor. Also, the goofieness really takes away from the disturbing quality. The gore and the slime is so grotesque but are just ruined by those dumb moments. It's a shame. Hopefully Flying Lotus gives another go at directing, and I really would love to see him try and make a serious film. I must say it was cool to see David Firth write a full length. If only this film had been more even. If you want a weird fun watch, give it a shot. That's about it though.

First of all, if you are sensitive and easy to make the choice to be offended, don't watch this! This anthology movie is gross, offensive, disturbing and entertaining all at the same time. I rank it right up there with Pink Flamingos, Multiple Maniacs, A Serbian Film, Pig and others. While this movie is much more light hearted than Last House- Left or Serbian Film, it's still in the same vein of offense. If you enjoy the odd and and dark, this one is a must!

Ok, so the best mindset to view this movie would be to pretend a new cable company moved into town...the price was right, so you decided to switch to the new guy, and you are now flipping through the channels...only instead of tv shows, you surf personal hells. i will say this, it bites in all directions.some of the themes are not often explored in the current social environment. i suppose the gross out factor was mainly to immediately force out the type of people who may not want to hear the message. each allegory actually spoke very loudly after i realized how i should be taking it. i think the tactic work... the people that would want to complain about some of the message never got past the theatre door bouncer of the first few gut checks...its an art movie from the last people you would expect an art movie from. and so a new voice is being heard...among those with the stomach to hear it.