ARAKESQUE

Forget those who consider Gus Van Sant the pioneer of indie gay cinema; sure, Mala Noche is sexy and My Own Private Idaho got River Phoenix to go all soft on us, but does it really stand the test of time?  On the other hand, looking over the work of Gregg Araki, is it not surprising that The Living End still seems so rebellious?  Though it’s probably not as shockingly graphic as it may have seemed in 1991.  Being a badass is a hard title to maintain; you keep it up long enough and eventually an even bigger badass will come along and knock you out of the top spot.  The Living End is a gay road movie that freely indulges in violence and sex, but it also seeks to remind its viewers that the AIDS crisis is still in full swing and that people are not doing enough about it (sadly, the film still feels relevant; happily, it’s still sexy).  Other films in his canon have been provocative without actually being memorable.  Sexy as Jonathan Schaech is, I could live without sitting through Doom Generationagain; Nowhere is gross indulgence without a heart, while Splendor is an attempt to go mainstream but is as forgettable for its devotion to tameness as the other two are in their avoidance of it.  His best, an adaptation of Scott Heim’s wonderfully disturbing novel Mysterious Skin, provided his most powerful and polished film yet.  Not one to be lost to the world of grownups, however, Araki has returned to his roots with Kaboom, a meditation on sex, love and current events that brings him back to the forefront of campy, dirty filmmaking (though with a purpose).  There’s definitely dirtier, sillier films out there, but Kaboom, despite not being a classic, is surprisingly watchable (which puts it far above other gay indie films that exploit nubile flesh like Another Gay Sequel).  It features fluid sexuality between orientations, nihilistically aloof characters and, the director’s favourite element, an incongruously loopy sci-fi subplot.  Araki gets surprisingly decent performances out of pretty young actors who, thankfully, have no hesitation of baring all for the camera, plus the addition of a French arthouse actress (Roxane Mesquida, probably most famous for Fat Girl) and the inclusion of his mainstay James Duval (playing a high school teacher…boy does that make me feel old).  Van Sant has moved on to bigger (and rarely better), so hopefully a movie to match the dramatic excellence f Mysterious Skin is yet to come, or at least something as dangerously fun as The Living End has borne itself in Araki’s mind.  Kaboomis available on DVD from eOne.