Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Kuso: Flying Lotus' Sundance premiere of 'grossest movie ever made' prompts 'mass walkouts'

*Warning: This article describes scenes from the film of a graphic nature*

Roisin O'Connor
Thursday 26 January 2017 05:04 EST
Comments
Kuso
Kuso (Flying Lotus/Kuso)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Flying Lotus (artist and musician Steven Ellison) premiered his feature film Kuso at Sundance Film Festival over the weekend and it sounds as though it was received with mixed reactions.

In a report from The Verge headlined 'Kuso is the grossest movie ever made', it was claimed that at one screening a "large chunk" of the crowd left early and that there was a consistent stream of walkouts up until the film's final scenes.

"Some gross-out films are one-note, but Kuso finds new ways to test viewers' fortitude," the reviewer wrote.

Flying Lotus - Kuso (Official Trailer)

"Some folks stuck around after a woman chewed on concrete until her teeth disintegrated, but still peaced out when an alien creature force-yanked a foetus from another woman's womb (accompanied by a Mortal Kombat sound clip: 'Get over here!"), then smoked the tiny corpse."

Kuso's official plot synopsis describes a collection of semi-connected short films that chronicle the lives of the mutated men, women and children of Los Angeles, after an earthquake.

It features music from Flying Lotus himself, Aphex Twin, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat and Brandon Coleman.

Various scenes are said to feature a man having sex with a talking boil on a woman's neck, genital mutilation, and a doctor, played by George Clinton, who keeps a medicinal cockroach in his anus.

Flying Lotus said he approached Clinton for the role by texting him: "Would you mind showing your butthole on camera?"

A representative for the film confirmed the nature of Clinton's appearance but said his "real ass" does not appear in Kuso.

A still from Kuso
A still from Kuso (Flying Lotus/Kuso)

Zachary Fox, who worked on the film, responded to the walkouts on Twitter.

"White people walked out of Kuso because it wasn't 50 years a slave, bye hoe," he tweeted.

Flying Lotus also said that the walkout "wasn't as dramatic as they [The Verge] made it out to be. I tried to warn folks".

"It was only like 20 people out of like 400 who walked out," he said.

Flying Lotus recommends you "watch it with someone you hate".

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in