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Gregg Araki's films are giving the US a crash course in shoegazing | Movies | The Guardian

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T his week sees the DVD release of two films from the singular talent of Gregg Araki: 1993's Totally Fucked Up and Kaboom, his most recent. It's always tempting to look for patterns and themes in a director's work, but in Araki's case, there's little that connects them all. The disenfranchised gay teens of Totally Fucked Up don't share much common ground with the silly stoners of his later comedy Smiley Face; and it's hard to reconcile the serious, subtle Mysterious Skin with the knockabout thrills of Splendor and Kaboom. But for all the hallucinatory imagery, ambisexual cavorting, drug taking, violence and other shocking facets of Araki's work, there's one element that runs through them all: the music. When he says that "Kaboom is my most autobiographical and personal film", he's not talking about the religious cults, secret agents and murder, but scenes such as the one where Thomas Dekker's character goes to a gig, a massive grin plastered across his face, or gives a look of pure gle

Totally Fucked Up Totally Fucked Up Movies This article is more than 14 years old Gregg Araki's films are giving the US a crash course in shoegazing This article is more than 14 years old Director of Mysterious Skin and Kaboom is keeping indie pop alive by featuring new music and remixes by his favourite bands Phelim O'Neill Fri 5 Aug 2011 19.03 EDT Share Prefer the Guardian on Google T his week sees the DVD release of two films from the singular talent of Gregg Araki: 1993's Totally Fucked Up and Kaboom , his most recent. It's always tempting to look for patterns and themes in a director's wo

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