His methods feature an erratic, loose and transgressive aesthetic, exploring taboo themes and incorporating experimental techniques,[1][2] and works with art, music, fashion and advertising.

His films typically explore unconventional narratives and themes of dysfunctional families, and also include Mister Lonely (2007), Spring Breakers (2012), and The Beach Bum (2019).

[7] His father was a tapdancer and produced documentaries for PBS in the 1970s about an "array of colorful Southern characters"; he would take Korine to carnivals and circuses[8] and taught him how to use a Bolex camera.

Other sources[16] state that he studied Dramatic Writing at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University for one semester before dropping out to pursue a career as a professional skateboarder.

"[19] Within three weeks, Korine wrote Kids, a film about 24 hours in the sex- and drug-filled lives of several Manhattan teenagers in New York City during the AIDS crisis.

"[22] Although a majority of mainstream critics derided it as an unintelligible mess, it won top prizes at that year's Venice Film Festival and earned Korine the respect of noted filmmakers such as Gus Van Sant, among others.

It has been called "unlike anything you've seen in a while – maybe ever" – and that "if you're the kind of person who claims to be frustrated by the predictability of commercial filmmaking, [it presents] a rare opportunity to put your money where your mouth is.

"[23] In 1998, Korine released The Diary of Anne Frank Pt II, a 40-minute three-screen collage featuring a boy burying his dog, kids in satanic dress vomiting on a Bible, and a man in blackface dancing and singing "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean".

While it broke a number of the movement's basic tenets, Lars von Trier lauded Korine's ability to interpret the rules creatively.

[citation needed] The story is told from the perspective of a young man suffering from untreated schizophrenia, played by Ewen Bremner, as he tries to understand his deteriorating world.

Like Gummo and Kids, it too has since become something of a cult classic, a go-to film for those seeking cinema that is, as Roger Ebert said in his three star review, "shocking for most moviegoers", unlike "the slick aboveground indie productions" that are now the norm.

[24] In 2000, The Devil, The Sinner, and His Journey premiered, which featured Korine in black metal corpsepaint as O. J. Simpson and Johnny Depp as Kato Kaelin.

In 2003, he made the television documentary Above the Below about his friend and collaborator David Blaine and his 44-day stunt in a park over the bank of River Thames in London inside a suspended plexiglas box.

His third feature film, Mister Lonely, was co-written by his brother, Avi Korine, and starred Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, Anita Pallenberg, David Blaine, Werner Herzog and Mal Whiteley.

Here, The Pope, The Queen of the United Kingdom, Madonna, James Dean and other impersonators build a stage in the hope that the world will visit and watch them perform.

In March 2011, Korine released a short film entitled Umshini Wam, which is a popular Zulu struggle song meaning "bring me my machine gun".

"[33] "That Mr. Korine appears to be having it both (or many) ways may seem like a cop-out, but only if you believe that the role of the artist is to be a didact or a scold",[34] wrote The New York Times.

[33][38] Korine's feature The Beach Bum was released in 2019, starring Matthew McConaughey as Moondog, Isla Fisher as his wife Minnie, Martin Lawrence as Captain Wack, and Snoop Dogg as Lingerie.

[1] Much of his filmography, including his screenplays, explores themes of dysfunctional families, mental disorders, abuse, hedonism, poverty and various subcultures, with unreliable narrators and a collage of perspectives.

[44] Korine credited tap-dance, vaudeville and minstrelsy as influences on his work in the 1990s and 2000s,[45] with him especially naming the comedy of Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson as inspirations for his intentionally stilted style of presentation and humor.

He has compared with this to viewing picture books of assorted photos, which would be seemingly devoid of context, but because they are compiled and presented in succession, a narrative is formed, and Korine has said that Gummo and his subsequent films were written in this fashion,[46] striving to retain a "margin of the undefined.

"[47] In 2009, he summarized an ideal setting in his aesthetic as "an abandoned parking lot and a soiled sofa on the edge [...] with a street lamp off to the side.

[52] In 1999, he listed his top ten films as Pixote by Héctor Babenco, Badlands and Days of Heaven by Terrence Malick, Fat City by John Huston, Stroszek by Werner Herzog, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes, McCabe and Mrs. Miller by Robert Altman, Out of the Blue by Dennis Hopper and Hail Mary by Jean-Luc Godard.

"[54] Korine feels there is no need to justify or explain the images he puts to the screen, clarifying that they are simply the result of "a cinema of passion and obsession.

[56] He stated in 1999 that "In another ten or fifteen years, the people that understand and appreciate Gummo or my work will be in positions of power", declaring that the culture presented in his art was going to become more prominent.

A Crack Up at the Race Riots, an experimental book of fragments which he jokingly described in press appearances and interviews as his attempt to write "the Great American Choose Your Own Adventure novel", was published in 1998 by Drag City.

The university describes the exhibition, which ran through February 26, 2009, as culling "together a number of photographs from Korine's private files in order to reveal a side of the artist's creative process that remains largely unexamined.

Depicting an unnamed, mysterious young girl moving through a televised landscape of shifting contexts, Pigxote further illustrates Korine's interest in replacing plot lines and expected narrative tropes with intuitively arranged "experiential moments."

[61] In February 2020, Korine directed and photographed a Gucci tailoring campaign starring Tyler, the Creator, A$AP Rocky and Iggy Pop.

[63] Korine has directed a number of music videos for artists such as Sonic Youth, Will Oldham, Cat Power and the Black Keys.