POLL: The Films of Gregg Araki

My vote is for The Living End, but I think Mysterious Skin is pretty good, too.

The more I think about it, I should probably watch the Doom trilogy again...

Mysterious Skin is the only time he's ever made anything resembling a good film – and it's almost great.

Great music critic, not as great filmmaker -- I appreciate the partial sense of 'John Waters for LA' yet not enough to get more involved than that.

Mysterious Skin is the only time he's ever made anything resembling a good film – and it's almost great.

OTM

(Still haven't seen Smiley Face, though, and the clips make me think I could go either way on it...)

I've only seen Mysterious Skin, but I think it's pretty special.

Mysterious Skin is the only time he's ever made anything resembling a good film – and it's almost great.

OTM.

Totally F***ed Up over Mysterious Skin. The other four I've seen are at best mediocre, and being really queer doesn't save Nowhere and The Doom Generation from being pretty awful.

Mysterious Skin is great!

Anna Faris is great but Smiley Face felt really thin and disappointing after Mysterious Skin. It had like five jokes and then just kept reminding you they happened in montages.

Yeah, that's what I heard about Smiley Face.

I like 'The Living End' a lot, but mostly because of a couple of things:

1) the referentiality to queer cinema of the moment (the scene where Luke shoots the guys with baseball bats, one of whom wears a shirt reading 'Drugstore Cowboy,' etc)

2) the (admittedly perfunctory) treatment of psychological death drive

3) the conflation of guns and cocks, which hadn't been done well since Genet's "Un chant d'amour"

4) the way it reminds me of certain passages from "Close to the Knives."

otherwise, yes, Mysterious Skin is his best work. in fact, i didn't realize that Araki had directed it until AFTER i had watched the whole thing, which made me like it even more!

of course, MS was the first time the story wasn't his. I like it, but it's way more "conventional" in (mostly) good and bad ways.

He always had decent taste in boy candy, tho it's odd thta James Duval was his onscreen proxy for several films... Hasn't GA lived with a woman for awhile?

nowhere... obviously.

of course, MS was the first time the story wasn't his. I like it, but it's way more "conventional" in (mostly) good and bad ways.

eh, this was ok, i was really worried he'd permanently changed direction to being more straight-laced/"legit"/less poppy or whatever. then i saw smiley face and was relieved.

still haven't seen that this is how the world ends pilot or those first two shorts.

he hates 3 Bewildered People i think, has suppressed it.

Great music critic, not as great filmmaker -- I appreciate the partial sense of 'John Waters for LA' yet not enough to get more involved than that.

And like Waters, he's a much better writer than director. But I didn't know he wrote about music. Where?

I don't know about writer >>> director. The attempt at bitchy fag dialogue in the early movies is painful.

But I didn't know he wrote about music. Where?

Regularly reviewed music for the LA Weekly in the late eighties, first noticed him when I went to school at UCLA in 1988. Combative, memorable, stood out, introduced to me to a lot of stuff in the months before I started working at the radio station there.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

voted nowhere. love him. wish there were more like him. always thought if gus van sant and todd haynes and dennis cooper had a baby... (hey more music writers)

anyway i'll take all the flaws for the kicks and liveliness and general good clean fun.

I saw the first half of Smiley Face last week and it was odd. Not really funny but kind of sunny and pleasant enough to make me keep watching. I wasn't stoned tho, so maybe I was missing the point.

nah its not really any better when hi

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I voted nowhere, but haven't seen mysterious skin

My roommate in college played the skinhead ('hey you know what AIDS stands for?') in the living end. Gregg was a cool guy the two times I met him through my roommate, second time he vaguely offered me a part and I made fun of him being an indie filmmaker and he shot back 'Indie? I'm an internationally recognized cinematic voice!!' in a completely offended tone and I looked at him worried for a second and then he just smiled at me and said 'gotcha'

Roger Ebert gave The Doom Generation zero stars. Ha!

Mysterious Skin is not better than Nowhere.

who are the assclowns who voted for doom generation?

Roger Ebert gave The Doom Generation zero stars.

Yeah, he usta get em right now and then

Seriously. What a horrifying thing that movie is. That's like defending "Gummo".

</ intentionally provocative post >

weird how i was just thinking about how i have never seen gummo despite loving harkor as i clicked on this thread

Kaboom is uh, OK. I kind of agree with the critic (NYT?) who wrote he should be doing something else at his age.

"It's a vagina, not a plate of spaghetti" is a good line tho.

I dug Kaboom.

mysterious skin is p awful

seems kindof mawkish and amateur, feels like a community arts collab. w/ high production standards. all the actors are unattractive in an irritatingly tv. clean way

i like the living end tho

the criminal queer is hot enough for me to buy it

The Living End was the first "gay" movie I ever rented. I had to make sure my parents didn't see it. I drew a breath at the scene in which the two guys are kissing and fucking on the bed.

Smiley Face was the only film of his I've made it through and it made me angry

I kind of love Doom Generation. I just watched Mysterious Skin for the first time today, and I fully love that movie: the amateurishness and mawkishness are obv what makes it work.

This thread makes me want to check out Nowhere next.

Kaboom, barring the presence of phones, could have dropped out of some tear in the fabric of spacetime caused in 1997. It's not good, but it's not good in some interesting ways - not enjoyable but interesting nonetheless.

Like the way computers get highlighted as all purpose can-do-anything plot points, ala most movies before 1990.

So... White Bird In A Blizzard seems to have come out this year. Looking forward to it whatever it is.

Araki was one of the first directors that I sought out everything by. Really loved Doom Generation and Mysterious Skin. I feel like Slowdive in the credits of the former film was one of the most important moments in my life. Even though the characters were kind of obnoxious a lot of the time and often were miserable, the whole image of it really fascinated me, I don't know why it seemed so alien and exotic to me.

I saw an interview with him on The Guardian a few years ago and found it quite disheartening that in the comments section not a single person had a nice thing to say about him. Somebody saying Sofia Coppola is better (because of the similar soundtrack choices) and I find that sad because I think what he does is so much more special (don't really have anything against her though).

My ranking from best to least...

Doom Generation
Mysterious Skin
Nowhere
Kaboom
Smiley Face
Totally Fucked Up
Living End
Splendor

White Bird In A Blizzard. Disappointing but okay.

I don't care that it doesn't convincingly show the time period but the whole thing looks a tad too artificial (Kaboom had this look too but not to the same extent). Some of the voiceover dialogue was pretty weak. I love all the music but the choices are just too predictable and its getting harder to believe that these kids are really into this stuff. Overall just not very compelling.

Eva Green is quite funny in places, Araki delivers on his usual showcase of great looking people with good sounds but I can't say much more for it than that. I get the feeling that the star is really famous but she's new to me.

so, he did an episode of Riverdale

https://www.artforum.com/film/charlie-fox-on-an-episode-of-riverdale-74191

Oh weird. But that makes sense. The episodes of 13 Reasons Why he did really felt like him but fit with the vibe.

is Now Apocalypse being discussed anywhere?

Roger Ebert gave The Doom Generation zero stars. Ha!

Oh weird. But that makes sense. The episodes of 13 Reasons Why he did really felt like him but fit with the vibe.

guess not, its good tho

Mysterious Skin is the only time he's ever made anything resembling a good film – and it's almost great.
― lihaperäpukamat (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, October 27, 2009

This seems harsh... j0rdan and I saw Totally F***ed Up at MoMA last night (16mm, big theater, crowd of dozens). Araki's good in this one at delivering a vibe; that's his strength in the better early films. There was a young guy basically wearing James Duval's look (artpunk queer in a leather jacket) in the MoMA audience, along with people my age reliving the New Queer Cinema epoch.

One of the kids, Roko Belic ("I hate fucking Bette Midler"), went on to direct the wonderful music documentary Genghis Blues.

I like most of his films. I doubt I'll be able to find Now Apocalypse any time soon but I'm glad he's still able to direct his own stuff.

It's been cancelled.

I guess I have to subscribe to a Starz streaming service to see this? Available in UK?

i saw nowhere when it came out and know that i LOVED it but don't now -- two decades later -- remember anything much abt it or what i liked abt it :(

I'll revise my decade-ago judgment.

lol i just watched 3 mins of nowhere on youtube to remind myself and it very much occurs to me that me loving it in 1997-98 was not unrelated to me in 1997-98 being deeply confused and miserable and nihilistic

i am still on the whole pro murderous dinosaurs with rayguns and wd probably enjoy it all over again, but in a much less intense FUCK EVERYTHING kind of a way

Now Apocalypse is on amazon prime in the uk.

Thanks. Somehow it didn't turn up in a general film&tv search (prime videos usually do)

Yes it’s weirdly random the way things turn up or don’t. Did you get it? I can’t believe the degree to which streaming services are so ubiquitous but it’s so amazingly difficult to actually find out what’s on them.

Yes it’s weirdly random the way things turn up or don’t. Did you get it? I can’t believe the degree to which streaming services are so ubiquitous but it’s so amazingly difficult to actually find out what’s on them.

No idea why that posted twice.

My preferred tv viewing is to turn on the tv and see what’s on. I hate the streaming tv model.

My preferred tv viewing is to turn on the tv and see what’s on.
― Good taste, bit Victorian but who isn't? (jed_), Monday, January 20, 2020 1:17 AM

I'll happily never do this again and wish I hadn't in the last 20 years. Successes were so few and far between. I hate regular tv so much.

I'll need to schedule this series, maybe in a few months. Looking forward to it.

Now Apocalypse - I wasn't expecting much, quite a lot of people were complaining that Araki is just repeating himself, the soundtrack doesn't have many surprises, it is a lot like Nowhere and Kaboom, I almost felt like I was watching a remake at times (perhaps there was some things intended for his 90s tv series that never taken off) but even then just being firmly in Araki-land is a welcome breath of fresh air to me. It was lovely being in this space again for 5 hours and I'm really sad it was cancelled because I'd love to stay there for longer and there's a greater emotional connection because of the length and character development.
I'm not optimistic for there being more Araki films any time soon.

There's more sex than ever (maybe a third of it being gay?), I wonder if he's always wanted to do this but only been able to now (on television that's nothing like the television he worked on in the 90s) or if it's just the nature of this story. No genitals except for the alien reptile but we do get one of the main characters ejaculating all over his own chest.

I liked the book titles "Bernie Bites: A Bernie Sanders Cook Book" and "A Big Green Alien Ass Raped Me"; the wall poster that says "Circle Jerk: A Support Group For Men".
There's a lot of digs at woke-isms that might have been grating if it were in a different context, but probably would have been controversial if a big enough audience was watching it.

Kelli Berglund was particularly good. Other favorites were Avan Jogia (adorable smile too) and Desmond Chiam as Jethro (a classic Araki himbo). It's a really short appearance but Monica Cho as Worm's Assistant was really fun.
Surprised to see RJ Mitte (Walter Jr from Breaking Bad) and Henry Rollins as the Alex Jones/David Icke guy.

Please watch it.

Thought I had mentioned some of his controversial opinions. I think he really disliked some of the indie directors of 00s and Scorsese. Said he would never do a gangster film because it's just "a bunch of fat guys saying motherfucker".

This is a fashion advert from 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cLW5aMd3nQ

Shopping trip from 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS4LNAhBxd0

This Is How The World Ends - Never aired mtv pilot episode, a lot of the story was later recycled into Kaboom. Michael J Anderson appears as a robber, Chemical Brothers and of course James Duval. I doubt Araki had a lot of choice in which bands he got (though The Creatures are there) because it has some of the biggest tunes of the era. This might be the most 90s thing that ever happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTvVcXFjlog
Micronauts music video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH4Nr6mcNIU

watched The Living End again after many years. From the opening scenes I thought I remembered that it was going to be really nihilistic, but it ended up being a love story

My students loved Totally F**** Up!

I remember it looking conspicuously less polished than the others (even The Living End which preceded it) and I'm guessing that was a choice?