Teenagers In Love

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with out director Gregg Araki’s films. Back in 1992, I discovered The Living End, a demented road trip with two HIV+ men who lash back against an indifferent world. Though amateurish in spots, and at times poorly acted, it was nevertheless hip and gleeful in its anarchy. Visually, it recalled the agitprop of Jean Luc Godard’s films; a torch passed from 60s Marxist cinema to the new wave of queer films in the 90s. Araki has himself acknowledged his debt to Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou. Warts and all, Araki’s self-proclaimed “irresponsible movie” was the film that Jonathan Demme’s compromised Philadelphia should have been. Coming after too many years of watching gay men and women as victims on the silver screen, The Living End was both a bolt of lightning and a breath of fresh air… read more >