Sex, drugs and the American way

The Doom Generation
Starring Jonathon Schaech, Rose McGowan, James Duval
Directed by Greg Araki
Screens from March 21
Sydney: Verona Cinema, Paddington
Melbourne: George Cinema's and various
Reviewed by Natasha Simons If you liked Pulp Fiction, you'll also enjoy The Doom Generation, packed with over the top surreal violence, sex, drugs, rock and roll and nihilistic, off-beat characters. Amy Blue (Rose McGowan), and the young Keanu Reeves look-alike Jordan White (James Duval) are Los Angeles teenagers in love but alienated from the hateful society they don't fit into. Their drugged out rock and roll lives are boring, meaningless and heading nowhere, until they meet Xavier Red (Jonathon Schaech). Xavier saves them from being executed for shoplifting at the quickiemart and, in a bloody "tomato sauce" scene, accidentally murders the shopkeeper. Death is never far away for Red, White and Blue (as they live life hedonistically on the run through US wastelands, moving from quickiemart to quickiemart to pick up nachos and cigarettes, accidentally killing people, with surreal blood spurting ferociously, along the way. Deadpan humour and go-fuck-yourself language are appealing to a generation society seems no longer to care about. The sets and production style are innovative, and the soundtrack thumps with alternative rhythms from the Jesus and Mary Chain, Skinny Puppy and the Cocteau Twins. But The Doom Generation is not a shallow expression-of-teenage-angst film. The characters are portrayed sympathetically but without pity, through their own feelings and desires. The actors bring passion and sexual chemistry to the relationship between the three main characters, for whom fucking is the coolest thing on earth. While The Doom Generation is director Greg Araki's first non-gay film, it has strong gay undertones through the explosive sexual tension between Jordan and Xavier. Araki is venomous in his depiction of the bigoted anti-gay, anti-women values concealed behind the establishment's public face of "truth, justice and the American way". But it's not a film about fighting for social change. Araki says, "This is my first 'heterosexual' movie, but it is also my most subversive, provocative and challenging film". Some of the scenes are indeed "provocative", so don't plan dinner afterwards — the last scene will ruin your appetite.

From GLW issue 223