I don't object to the sex or violence, or even the characters' reactions to the situations they find themselves in. What bothers me is I get the sense that the story(?) is secondary to Araki's attempt to have The Doom Generation create the same iconic cultural buzz that Pulp Fiction did the year previous. It's obvious so much time and energy was spent perfecting the crazy/sexy/cool look and feel of the movie, that the story, acting and the (cringe-inducing)dialog were duly sacrificed to achieve some kind of pop culture statement. The problem is that Araki's commentary on the younger generation was so exaggerated and trite it turned me right off and muted any semblance of plot or characterization that remained. Araki comes off like someone who has very little inherit understanding of the generation he's trying to be the mouthpiece for. Xavier licks ejaculate off of his hand, but the only reason why it exists is to 'freak out the hetero squares'. The film bursts at the seams with content that exists only to shock. The trouble is, it has a hard time even doing that.
The truly sad thing is, this movie was not without potential. The premise was interesting, the look was good, but if we were given just one more good element, it might have been a watchable film. As it stands, the movie spins its wheels in the mud -- making a lot of commotion, but ultimately never going anywhere. The dialog, I'm convinced, was written solely with the purpose that at least one of the put-downs or sarcastic comebacks would somehow become a popular catchphrase amongst the hip gen-x crowd. Same with the 666 thing. That kind of gimmickry might accentuate a good film, but it also makes a bad film worse, because it comes across as pretentious and self-serving.
As a film about the generation of which I'm a member (I was nineteen when this came out), I don't know if I should feel insulted or embarrassed for Araki. One thing's for sure, he should be embarrassed about making this sleazy schlock.
The truly sad thing is, this movie was not without potential. The premise was interesting, the look was good, but if we were given just one more good element, it might have been a watchable film. As it stands, the movie spins its wheels in the mud -- making a lot of commotion, but ultimately never going anywhere. The dialog, I'm convinced, was written solely with the purpose that at least one of the put-downs or sarcastic comebacks would somehow become a popular catchphrase amongst the hip gen-x crowd. Same with the 666 thing. That kind of gimmickry might accentuate a good film, but it also makes a bad film worse, because it comes across as pretentious and self-serving.
As a film about the generation of which I'm a member (I was nineteen when this came out), I don't know if I should feel insulted or embarrassed for Araki. One thing's for sure, he should be embarrassed about making this sleazy schlock.