I was curious after reading some seriously mixed opinions on Gregg Araki’s new movie Kaboom on numerous blogs (here, here, and here for example) from the Cannes Film Festival. Along with Mike Leigh’s new movie, Another Year, and the Palme D’Or winner this year Oncle Boonmee, Kaboom has been added to my list of movies to see. I haven’t really been much of a fan of Gregg Araki’s earlier movies. I have a friend who keeps insisting I give The Doom Generation another try, but even after repeated viewings it hasn’t done much for me.
So, I decided to check out Kaboom last night at Nancy’s awesome art house theater with the horrible website: Cameo. I can’t even decide how I feel about the movie, which in this case, is a good thing. One minute it’s an angsty teen drama, the next minute soft-core porn, the next a screwball comedy, the next a surreal sci-fi freakout on too much acid, the next horror, and lastly, mainly, it’s a mystery. It was so absolutely and surreally over the top. Like a house of cards where the whole time you are sitting on the edge of your seat to see if it is all going to collapse under its own weight. It was B-movie stupid, kitchy and horrible and completely fun and brilliant at the same time. All I can say is that when I left the movie theater I wanted to see the movie again right away. The last time I can remember seeing a movie like that in the theater was when I saw Fight Club, so I guess you can take that as a compliment…