The Doom Generation

This is on my short list of movies never to see. It is not only horrible; it is disturbing. It will bother you. You will wish you never saw it. Also on the list: U Turn

The Doom Generation (Gregg Araki, 1995)

There are two types of people who have seen The Doom Generation: those who loved it and those who hated it. (Interestingly, the two groups, according to IMDB, who rate it highest? Males under 18 and females 18-29. Figure that one out, armchair Freudians.) While I definitely come down on the "hated it" side of the line, I can at least understand what it was Araki was trying to do with this movie. I just can't tell whether he utterly failed to do what he set out to, whether he succeeded in such an incompetent way that it doesn't matter, or whether he succeeded so brilliantly that my reaction to the film was exactly what he was going for. To make matters even more confusing, I'm leaning towards the third possibility. Why? Hindsight.

While Araki isn't all that hot a director (cf. the failed, if valiant, attempt to adapt Mysterious Skin), the folks he plunked down in front of the screen are all that hot actors, as we have seen in the twelve-years-and-change since The Doom Generation was released; James Duval (basically discovered by Araki; his second film role was in Araki's first movie) has gone on to do some excellent work, Jonathon Schaech has gotten a decent amount of big-screen work in the past few years after an extensive television career, and, of courser, Rose McGowan went from being a Pauly Shore movie staple to an It Girl after Scream. Perhaps even more telling is the number of high-profile folks (actors and non-) who were drawn to Araki's script: Skinny Puppy, Perry Farrell, Amanda Bearse (of Married... with Children), Nicky Katt (soon to become famous on Boston Public), Parker Posey, Christopher Knight (yes, Peter Brady), even Heidi Fleiss. All pop up in minor roles. They had to have seen something to get involved.

The something, of course, is the whole alienation-angst thing that runs through the script. I mean, this is basically Ian Hunter's "The Outsider" brought to the big screen, with a really awful love story thrown into the mix and some really bad acting to propel it. But I don't think the acting was bad by accident. With these three actors? Oh, no, bub. I think Araki planned it that way. I think he told them to overact. Why? That's a bit more complicated. "To get the teen audience" is an easy, expendable, and probably oversimplified answer, though both Duval and McGowan certainly act like characters out of any number of awful teen goth poems I've read over the years. I think there's more to it-- the artificiality of the acting corresponding to the artificiality (or innocence, if you'd rather see it that way) of these characters; note that the two of them get better as the movie goes on (cf. Lindsay Crouse in Mamet's House of Games, who goes through the same transformation in much the same way). Similarly, the cheap special effects and set decoration. Simply covering a bar in tinfoil? Genius, if you want to go for a cheap look.

All that said, it doesn't diminish my visceral reaction to the film in any way. I still don't like it. If Araki didn't want me to like it, I can certainly respect that, and it's a valid enough reaction for a director to expect from a film; Hideshi Hino certainly isn't looking for legions of screaming fans when he directs movies. It just doesn't quite ring right, because man, if this film does have a target audience, I'm it. The cheap, dumb sets? I loved them in Carpenter's They Live. The bad acting? See my previous note on House of Games, which I think of as one of the hundred best movies ever made. And Skinny Puppy fans don't come much harder-core than me. Somehow, though, while I can appreciate the film on an intellectual level, I just don't feel it. Go figure. **

If you don't enjoy surrealism, you're not going to enjoy this movie. If you are not in touch with gay or goth culture, you're not going to connect with this movie. If you every said, "Mel Gibson was great in Lethal Weapon," your not going to understand this movie.

This was one of the greatest movies ever. Watch it just for the Ogre cameo...if you even know who that is...

I loved this movie from start to finish. It is a mixture of male nudity and homoeroticitism and a "very different" story of "serial killers" all in one. It is a story of a "het" couple traveling and picking up a hitchhiker that pushes them to their limits emotionally and physically. If you are a James Duvall fan, you will love this movie. It does cast him in a "very different light" and some "nice views" than most of his roles. The acting was very solid and very believable!!! See this movie for yourself. I highly recommend this one!!!!

This is the second part in Araki's "Teen Angst Trilogy", and by far the least watchable. Check out "Totally F***ed Up" and "Nowhere" for a better time.