It’s the 21st century and I’m too old to be obsessed with this shit ...

But I adore you, Greg Araki
A Career Retrospective by Rhonda Baughman

My mint vhs copy of The Living End arrived yesterday - a copy I did not have to pay $50.00 for by the way - what it seems to fetch these days. I can see why - it’s the uber-gay The Doom Generation, coherent narrative that Totally Fucked Up was not. It’s what spawned the late nineties nihilistic road-trip-we’re-going-to-hell-anyway cinema phenomenon and most likely where cult fave Baise-moi came from ... oooo - more on that feisty thriller later.

Greg Araki is quoted on the imdb.com database as stating:"I can't think of one Hollywood director whose next film I'm looking forward to seeing." And with only a few exceptions,  I have to agree with him. Cinema is supposed to be fun, not torturous - so why can’t more directors have Araki’s kind of spirit, an edge, dare I say, vision? ... and not take themselves so goddamn seriously?!?

I mean, really ... when did going to the movies begin to entail asking the question: ‘Hey gang, what poster looks like it sucks the least?’ That was  the big stumper du jour when I saw Resident Evil: Extinction (where I lasted until the -fiery birds/human in peril- scene), so I definitely think it’s time to nix the new releases and hit the Netflix stack, along with my own personal collection. I’m saving his two latest efforts - Smiley Face and Mysterious Skin for a rainy day - or a day when someone asks me the question above again. And, as of this writing, I have been unable to locate Araki’s two earliest films, Three Bewildered People in the Night and The Long Weekend (O’Despair) - nor the pilot shot for This Is How the World Ends - you know of their existence, send a map - and we’ll go on a little road trip hunt ourselves.

The Living End - Ahhhh ... sweet memories of my own wayward youth and bizarre taste in music. Let me see ... and not much has changed apparently, because this one still rests as a winner with me. It’s washed out, grainy, grungy, dark, and not too politically correct. In other words - to me it’s a breath of fresh air. Two breaths - there is not one stupid CG monster in sight. Good. Two men, Jon and Luke, (biblically sound, I like that) are gay, HIV+, and in a funk. They don’t run for the Lexapro, they run for the road - they run from the problem. In the cagey age of let’s talk about our feelings - they in fact, do not. They fuck instead. Problems mostly solved.Great end scene. Well worth the previous 85 minutes of despair.

Totally Fucked Up- Yes, it is a fucked up film and that is the point. James Duval stars in the film and at the time of viewing, I did not need to know anymore. This is shallow. And I have no problem with this. Gay teens and suicide - twp topics that even 15 years later still generate shudders of a taboo nature. Greg Araki had it right - talk about it, show it, play around with it (no pun intended) - and guess what? You might make it less taboo. Taboo is not only a stupid board game, but it is also the cultural norm to breed misinformation, distrust, and moronic hoards.

The Doom Generation - Easily the most well-known of the Araki army. More James Duval, a lot of the cheekily deviant Rose McGowan, and a dash of Johnathon Schaech - during his mid-nineties hot and dirty, mysterious drifter phase. I miss that phase. Generation has a great soundtrack, hilarious dialogue (Amy: “... chunky pumpkinhead ...”),  a chock-full-o’cameos cannister left wide open for Araki’s next tale, and I can never eat Doritos again without some real deep emotion bubbling forth. What film of the current age can do all this for me?

Nowhere - I own the soundtrack and yes, it rocks. Furthermore, I do feel the same way about LA as James Duval’s character does ... “LA is like nowhere ... everybody who lives here is lost ...” He’s right. LA kinda sucks. It’s fun to visit, but nowhere I’d want to live. Get it? Nowhere I’d want to live ... haha - I slay me. So, there is a drinking game to be played with all the cameos in this film - and for once, the cameos work. They’re supposed to be obvious and fun - it’s part of the nowhere point. (Rob Zombie got it all wrong with his Halloween remake, especially the cameos - most directors do nowadays.) This Araki film has Kathleen Robertson as Lucifer - so this one time, worshiping Satan is permissible.

Splendor - Back in 1992, Kathleen Robertson played Darla, in Blown Away. Not the Tommy Lee Jones film, mind you, but the strangely compelling from beginning to end, Corey Haim/Corey Feldman, pre-boob job Nicole Eggert flick. Make sure you get the Unrated version. She’s back, a little older, but no less hot, and still engaged in those wacky threesomes, in Araki’s Splendor. And so is Schaech. And as sad is it is to admit, when Robertson’s character becomes pregnant and has no idea who the father is - it’s so close to real life for so many people, I found myself with a little sniffle in my snoot.

... Now, snoots and sniffling aside -  how about that road trip, dear reader?

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