Totally F***ed Up (1993)

Totally F***ed Up: Directed by Gregg Araki. With James Duval, Roko Belic, Susan Behshid, Jenee Gill. Six queer teenagers struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of varying obstacles.

“with obvious allusions to vivre sa vie (the film is divided into 14 seemingly randomly segregate segments), gregg araki takes a journey into the lives of a group of gay teens in LA (not ALL gay teens, just a group). Well, maybe journey is the wrong word for it. Those familiar with Arakiu0026#39;s other works are aware that they are loud, colorful, bombastic, and over-exentuated. They are also very MOBILE, in that a lot happens in the stories (usually someone gets killed, they run from johnny law, etc.). Totally F**ked up is not a mobile film. It doesnu0026#39;t go anywhere. Araki seems to proscribe in this film to the philosophy ( a Rossellini/ Godard staple) that life is less about actions or even interactions than boredom and other peopleu0026#39;s stories. James Duval plays a teen who broods in self-antipathy, spouting off despeate (and often pathetic) catch phrases like u0026quot;life is sh**.u0026quot; or u0026quot;love does not exist.u0026quot; But the underlying notion is that he really has lost faith and all hope, and as much as it ills him to become a statistic he keeps creeping that way, unable to find an outlet to truly express his real dismays.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eArakiu0026#39;s trademark self-coined slang and gother-than-thou art references are still in tact as we view this period of life that is less transitional emotionally than just a shift of behaviors- as we all act like babies. maybe itu0026#39;s just making up excuses – a character being lured into cheating because of a bootleg nine inch nails video- or maybe itu0026#39;s just talking in goofy language and popping pills in abandonned garages to watch each other fall over.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eas for the filmu0026#39;s u0026quot;crappyu0026quot; look, I could either chock it up to lack of funds or intentional grainy filming. After all, every single one of his films are laced with characters using intentionally awful dialogue and intentionally bad acting to disguise its actual intentions. it makes since that he could do this visually too. And with the interspersed interviews with stevenu0026#39;s video camera- it could easily be construed as the actual camera eye of the group, a 7th member if you will. either way, it didnu0026#39;t distract me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePeople who enjoyed Arakiu0026#39;s other films because of the pretty colors and big loud noises need not apply themselves to this film, because it does take patience. but the result is a rewarding experience.”