KABOOM

Greg Araki's newest outing is a fun B movie. Lacking the nihilistic heart of the of The Living End and the dramatic beauty of Mysterious Skin, Kaboom is more towards Araki's John Waters end of the spectrum. Obvious influences for Araki are b-movie filmmakers like Waters, but he has more going on than that. At the premiere I attended, the director said this film is one of his most auto-biographical. When any viewer of his previous works, after seeing Kaboom, would question the validity of that. 

Araki came to me via Mysterious Skin and I then ran out to see his other works. In films like The Doom Generation or Nowhere we are getting what a Paul Morrissey or a Pier-Paolo Passollini might of created if they grew up in the age of Act Up and 'The End Of History.' He is definitely someone to check out, but it seems he might of been effected by the dramatic emotionality of Mysterious Skin. Or possibly Araki's rage, apparent in his films of the 1990's has alleviated? That put him into a conciliated realm to make the strong and controlled Mysterious Skin? But his lack of rage ultimately yields, after Skin, a mediocre stoner comedy Smile Face and a wannabe midnight movie Kaboom? 

Rating: SHIT. If you're into wasting your time, Kaboom is part Donnie Darko, part David Lynch, and part Joss Whedon, but hardly amounts to any of those things. It produces laughs, like most modern b-movies do, but instead go watch The Living End, The Doom Generation, Nowhere and Mysterious Skin. Then, instead of watching Kaboom, go make movies like Araki's previous output. Express your rage! It's fun!