The Doom Generation (2023)

Worth a look if you absolutely positively must see Rose McGowan naked in various degrading situations, but not worth watching otherwise. This movie is not merely bad, but bad AND pretentious. The kind of movie that would have gotten the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment, if they could have cleaned the profanity from the soundtrack. The symbolism is laid on with a trowel; Araki must have learned that directors sometimes use color as a motif, so he saturates every frame with reds and blues and yellows. The number 666 appears numerous times - whoa! Symbol! Various sets have pithy signs on the wall - whoa! Symbol! The movie has its fans, but I simply cannot see why. Maybe Araki isn't the Ed Wood of our time, but then again, maybe he is.

There is more depth and thought to this movie than first meets the eye but the Doom Generation unfortunately falls to the ills of poor acting, poor screen writing, and major gaps and holes in the storyline. The first half of the movie, aside from setting up the storyline, is almost a waste of time.Still, the movie is an interesting study in the dark thought and actions of 3 teens on a road trip to hell finding elicit drugs, sex, and violence just at about every stop over. Amy and Jordan are two X Generation punk rockers best described as Stoned most of the time and looking for excitement. They picked up an older but even more-so on the edge low life named X or Xavier who was running from the 'Skin-heads'. As the movie goes along, the depth of depravity increases until Jordan who I find is the most redeemable character being the most harmless starts asking the question 'Is there any meaning in life'.Still I enjoyed some of the thought especially towards the end of the movie. There are some themes around redemption and salvation that I find interesting. There is a lot of sex in this movie of which while I found provocative in the beginning, a major turn off towards the end of the movie where especially for Amy and X, there was nothing sacred in sex. At the conclusion of the movie, Jordan it seemed was the redeemable character as he confesses his love for Amy. And, for those who are squeamish, avoid the ending at all costs. I found it a bit unnecessary and the ending scene in the car almost pointless.

The Doom Generation is a stunning, gripping, gut-wrenching movie. It's easy to see why reactions are so strongly polarized, with almost everybody either loving it or hating it. It's scary to imagine what kind of mind would react with genuine indifference.I admit I didn't read all the reviews already posted for it, but in the ones I did read I was surprised to find so few that mentioned how funny and how charming this movie is. Like it or not, it's primarily a romantic comedy, and if you miss that you've missed what holds it all together. It's extremely intelligent, very dark, very sweet, profoundly erotic, and shockingly bloody. But most of all it's very, very funny. If I'd missed the humor, I'd still like the freewheeling sexiness, but I'd be appalled by the violence. But I didn't miss the humor, so I loved it all.Everything about it is brilliant: the writing, the direction, even the gory special effects, and every single member of the large cast is perfect, especially the three leads. For a "heterosexual" movie, as Araki labeled it (with some irony, I have to think), with plenty of sex between the girl and both guys, the most powerfully erotic scenes are between the two men alone. There's no sex acted out between them at all, not even a kiss, but the heat is intense and stunning, much more powerful than the explicit sex between either of them and the girl. It's the best proof I've ever seen that eroticism and sex are completely different, and in a movie eroticism is much more entertaining. The sex acts in this movie may be all hetero, but the real heat is as gay as it gets. That's quite a coup.I for one am glad it's not in widescreen on the DVD. If a movie that's filmed widescreen is shown at 4:3, you do lose information. But a lot of independent movies from that period were filmed at 4:3, so that a "widescreen" version just crops off the top and bottom of the picture, and you actually get less information. (The widescreen version of Gus Van Sant's brilliant Elephant is like that, but fortunately that DVD includes both versions.)

this movie is great! if you've never seen it you really need to. as for the spoiler i spoke of considering the box gives a fleeting summary the ending is pretty much spoiled. anyways, i was trying to find these "Amy and Jordan" comics online because i am sure i would love them but i can't. if anyone can tell me where they are i would appreciate it. so i guess i need ten lines to make a comment so i am pretty much going to be rambling in the rest of this. rose mcgowan is pretty hot in this movie, despite that awful haircut/wig. then again this movie was set in the 90's and that's what those rocker/goth chicks were rockin back in those days. so is this ten lines yet? sweet! peace out yo!