a review of 彻底完蛋

exceedingly sweet and coherent considering its subject matter and the fact it was created by gregg araki. this film has me feeeling thingsss. totally teleported me back to nineteen ninety-three. the broed out surfer speak. the see-through corded telephone. just dropping by your friend's house unannounced. camcorder footage. spending countless hours on the phone. getting the busy signal. the casual, gleeful and ever-present homophobia. not knowing what kind of sex i liked yet. the casual, smiling depression. i think this movie comes right up to the line of being trauma porn and then decides not to delve into that territory. yes, there's trauma and violence, it was the early nineties...like many other times in history, it was a fucked up time for queers. and that's also not the focus of the narrative. in fact for me it was almost defocused. the narrative instead is the resilience, the coping mechanisms, the found family interpersonal relationships, the love / lust, the indifferent self destruction, and how life just carries on through all of it. can't recall seeing very many films this raw, yet delivering a narrative and a theme that is so focused and prescient. the interspersed humor carries us through, but it never detracts from the sentiment of it all. the roar of the crickets in the middle of the night. the soundtrack. the soundtrack. gregg had to walk so many thin lines to pull this film off and to pull it off so impactfully. i'll be thinking about this for a while. this film inspired me.