kaboom
I believe the last time I wrote anything substantial about a movie on my LJ it was Teeth. So Kaboom is in good company.
James and I decided to check out the Living Room Theaters yesterday for a change of pace, so he read the google blurbs on the movies currently playing and found this:
"Kaboom" is a hyper-stylized "Twin Peaks" for the Coachella Generation, featuring a gorgeous young cast. A wild, witty and sex-drenched horror-comedy thriller, it is the story of Smith, an ambisexual 18-year-old college freshman who stumbles upon a monstrous conspiracy in a seemingly idyllic Southern California seaside town
AND OH MY GOD THIS MOVIE IS RIDICULOUS. But it was lots and lots of fun to watch. We both thought it sounded like something we'd like, and we both wound up really enjoying it. I bet there are a fair amount of people on my flist who would like it too :) Ebert's review noted, "If the events in "Kaboom” are anything, they're arbitrary." And I totally agree with that. I just didn't see it as that much of a problem...given that nothing that happens in the movie really winds up mattering, it's more about the ride.
This is first Gregg Araki movie I've seen, but I'll probably have to watch more now. There were a lot of little things in Kaboom I found really refreshing . The main character, Smith's, sexuality for one, and how that was handled. Basically the first scene in the movie feature's Smith's gay fantasy about his roommate, Thor. Smith, soon after, says he has sex with both men and women (which we see plenty of later). Smith's BFF Stella gives him shit about this, saying "That you randomly, sometimes stick it in a girl does not mean anything beyond you need to monitor your drinking."
All of the 'discussion' on this comes from Smith's friends and none from Smith himself, who I think says he's "undeclared" when pressed for an answer. And after a little while...everyone kinda stops caring about Smith's sexuality. Given Araki's had personal experience with this kind of monosexual backlash, it doesn't surprise me that things play out like this...but it's still kinda cool, right?
And the relationship between Smith and London-the girl who approaches him at a party for a hook-up and then becomes his FWB-was kinda cool too.
I imagine the scene where London stops the guy who's going down on her to give him instructions on how he should be doing it has got a lot of positive attention already. Probably what was so great about that scene was that the guy after initially getting a little offended, just took her advice and carried on.
One very little thing I liked: When London reveals that she had her own motivations to approach Smith in the first place, he's willing to accept her "but I didn't plan the rest of it, I just liked you" at face value and forgive her without making a big deal of it. Since "YOU LIED TO ME *wrings hands*" is such a common reaction to that kind of a revelation.
Also, okay, so there's this scene where Stella gets attacked in the bathroom while she's only wearing a towel. AND THE TOWEL STAYS ON, GUYS. It stays on, and there's really nothing sexual about the scene. And it's not like we don't see her half naked in other scenes in the movie. They're just, you know, sex scenes, not scenes of sexualized violence.
Oh, and given there is a whole subplot about Stella's relationship with Lorelei, a woman with supernatural powers...it definitely passes the Bechdel test.
(Yeahhh, there are people with supernatural powers in this movie. And Stella shrugs it off-"She's a witch"-like it's no big deal. Which is pretty indicative of the film's overall tone, tbh.)
No spoilers but: WOW, THE END. The end, which various reviewers have complained about, left James and I both CRACKING UP until the credits rolled. As soon as "The Bitter End" by Placebo started playing, I pretty much lost it.
James and I decided to check out the Living Room Theaters yesterday for a change of pace, so he read the google blurbs on the movies currently playing and found this:
"Kaboom" is a hyper-stylized "Twin Peaks" for the Coachella Generation, featuring a gorgeous young cast. A wild, witty and sex-drenched horror-comedy thriller, it is the story of Smith, an ambisexual 18-year-old college freshman who stumbles upon a monstrous conspiracy in a seemingly idyllic Southern California seaside town
AND OH MY GOD THIS MOVIE IS RIDICULOUS. But it was lots and lots of fun to watch. We both thought it sounded like something we'd like, and we both wound up really enjoying it. I bet there are a fair amount of people on my flist who would like it too :) Ebert's review noted, "If the events in "Kaboom” are anything, they're arbitrary." And I totally agree with that. I just didn't see it as that much of a problem...given that nothing that happens in the movie really winds up mattering, it's more about the ride.
This is first Gregg Araki movie I've seen, but I'll probably have to watch more now. There were a lot of little things in Kaboom I found really refreshing . The main character, Smith's, sexuality for one, and how that was handled. Basically the first scene in the movie feature's Smith's gay fantasy about his roommate, Thor. Smith, soon after, says he has sex with both men and women (which we see plenty of later). Smith's BFF Stella gives him shit about this, saying "That you randomly, sometimes stick it in a girl does not mean anything beyond you need to monitor your drinking."
All of the 'discussion' on this comes from Smith's friends and none from Smith himself, who I think says he's "undeclared" when pressed for an answer. And after a little while...everyone kinda stops caring about Smith's sexuality. Given Araki's had personal experience with this kind of monosexual backlash, it doesn't surprise me that things play out like this...but it's still kinda cool, right?
And the relationship between Smith and London-the girl who approaches him at a party for a hook-up and then becomes his FWB-was kinda cool too.
I imagine the scene where London stops the guy who's going down on her to give him instructions on how he should be doing it has got a lot of positive attention already. Probably what was so great about that scene was that the guy after initially getting a little offended, just took her advice and carried on.
One very little thing I liked: When London reveals that she had her own motivations to approach Smith in the first place, he's willing to accept her "but I didn't plan the rest of it, I just liked you" at face value and forgive her without making a big deal of it. Since "YOU LIED TO ME *wrings hands*" is such a common reaction to that kind of a revelation.
Also, okay, so there's this scene where Stella gets attacked in the bathroom while she's only wearing a towel. AND THE TOWEL STAYS ON, GUYS. It stays on, and there's really nothing sexual about the scene. And it's not like we don't see her half naked in other scenes in the movie. They're just, you know, sex scenes, not scenes of sexualized violence.
Oh, and given there is a whole subplot about Stella's relationship with Lorelei, a woman with supernatural powers...it definitely passes the Bechdel test.
(Yeahhh, there are people with supernatural powers in this movie. And Stella shrugs it off-"She's a witch"-like it's no big deal. Which is pretty indicative of the film's overall tone, tbh.)
No spoilers but: WOW, THE END. The end, which various reviewers have complained about, left James and I both CRACKING UP until the credits rolled. As soon as "The Bitter End" by Placebo started playing, I pretty much lost it.