The Living End (1992)

Araki's first mainstream baby. I like to just say baby, meaning his first movie ever, but he made two before this. TLE rocks, as it's a totally courageous and brave, no holds barred, heterosexual journey to the world's end, for two young HIV positive gay guys/studs, one (Gilmore) a very much reserved film critic, his lover (Dytri), an opposite, wild, raucous, sociapathic, and homicidal, where we kind of have a Natural Born Killer's thing going, as these two newfound lovebirds, take off, due to Dytri's out and control and murderous tendencies (most violence here, implied) on a 90's road adventure. The film has such a great "F.ck you" attitude, and Araki's tight shots whether exterior or interior are so cool. If you notice, about half way through, the screen is minimalized some, where the screen becomes shaped as if we're watching home movies on a projector. This is something you're never see coming, but I do understand the point to this. There are some really out there moments, a comical one, involving some sick violence, when a girlfriend catches her lover in bed with Dytri, (a priceless line attached here) and stabs him, where their dog ends up, licking the blood off the now deceased, where Dytri's flies out of there, dog in tow. Another scene involves, legendary Corman actress, Woronov who's really good as one of two women who pick up Dytri, where these two unbalanced sorts, have a much shortened future planned for Dytri, after they of course, fu.k him. Again Dytri, scarcely gets away with his life. Gilmore was interested with a natural performance as Jon, while it was Dytri who was stealing his screen partner thunder, as the who I really liked character and performance. I wish Gilmore had acted in more stuff. One of his few friends in this, (Marta) as I think bi friend, was an interesting sort to complete the triangle, with a very understanding and engaging character, offbeat, who gets over emotional. Engaging is her performance too, (she's fantastic) where the gay bi woman, best friend has become something stereotypical, too the doctor, confronting patient with that terminal result, here down in an original comic way. This film is a complete, amongst some impressive Indie features, that featured in the good old year of 1993. Usually for a new up and coming, Indie filmmaker, the first is their best, and the one that's remembered. With this one, it's no exception. The film's grim if beautiful open end, plays out perfectly with the story. Tick around and take heed of Araki's little blunt message, after the end credits play. A profound gem of a film, of cult, every hetro should see.

My first impression going in to see "Brokeback Mountain" when that one came out, was; "How boringly common gay love seem to be". And i thought of it being boringly common in a cinematic sense. Only rule broken in that movie was to make it possible for a large audience to have empathy with it characters without hiding the gayness of them. It worked. I salute that. And i still think that was the performance that earned Ledger his Oscar.But Arakki does not stay within content when making his movies great (when they are). His style is widely overlooked by his "controversial" content. Even though the two are matched as should be in good art craft.Let me just give you one example to look for. One scene, in the beginning of the movie, we see the character of Luke, who's been hustling another man, back at that mans place. Suddenly the john's wife or girlfriend appears and the acting style changes to that of badly made porn. But not only the style of acting, also the cutting. The woman and Luke never appear in the same frame and the shots of him reacting to her, could have been taken weeks apart (a common use in porn to make models appear in the same scene, although they were never on set). The woman is acting so badly, that it can only be a parody of the clichés of porn too, since, Arraki surely knows how to get good actors and know how to direct them.Lots of other good stuff could be commented on, but let me just get back to my pronouncing it the best gay LOVE story told on screen; Even thought the character of Luke can be seen as only a projection of Jon's diagnosis as HIV positive (His way of coping with it as Scottie has to invent Madelaine in "Vertigo" facing death).... it still is a love story, sick as it may seem. And a hell of a lot closer to fulfilling what we look for in love stories, than the ones with either happy or weepy ends. This one has both and rings truer.

By chance, this movie caught my attention late-night and I was lucky enough to watch from start to finish. As much of a docudrama as it is a character study from the early gay nineties, some people may find this flick utter crap, or at the very least, sophomoric. To those people, I suggest sticking to "Eight Below" or anything starring Reese Witherspoon.As the viewer, I felt transported back to 1992, having been 25 years old at the time this movie was released with no idea it even existed. The somewhat surrealistic, exploratory journey between the two main characters brings back so many memories from a time where such strange pairings and outrageous actions seemed to occur regularly. Whether you grew up in Dallas, LA, or New York makes no difference; chances are you knew any one of the characters from this film in some aspect.At times overtly philosophical, others completely abstract, the exploration of two peoples' mental struggle with HIV was at least done from an unflinching perspective. This is a case study in human nature, no matter how uncomfortable the subject matter. It also proves that the nature of the beast hasn't changed and that HIV/AIDs still isn't really a priority of the U.S. government...at least, not in any beneficial way to those afflicted. Be sure to stick around for the final message in the film credits and see if you can tell if anything has changed in the last fifteen years.As a special treat, if you've ever been a fan of industrial/electronica from the Wax Trax! label (among others), you'll recognize some great stuff, from Chris and Cosey, Coil, KMFDM, and even Psychic TV.

I really love Araki's 'The Doom Generation' and 'Nowhere', but it's taken me some time to finally get around to watching this, his debut. Now seeing those other two first has probably ruined 'The Living End' for me, as I can't help but compare it to them, and it lacks the energy, pop culture saturation and surreal humour that appeals to me so much. 'The Living End' is more realistic and serious, and does what it does quite well for its obvious budget limitations, but I can't say I was all that impressed.Still Araki is a great talent, and went on to better things.Nice to see a cameo by the delicious Mary Woronov though!