Douglas Messerli | Two Films by Gregg Araki [Introductory note]

two films by gregg araki

by Douglas Messerli

 

Although Japanese-American California-born Gregg Araki had already made two movies before 1992—directing Three Bewildered People in the Night in 1987 and The Long Weekend (O’Despair) in 1989—that early 1990s work suddenly brought to light a talent so raw and apparent in The Living End that he quickly became, along with Tom Kalin, the poster boy for what has come to be described as the “New Queer Cinema.” Along with his third film, Totally Fucked Up (the first in his so-called “Teenage Apocalypse” trilogy, released the following year), Araki quickly came to be perceived as one of the major new film makers, who just happened also to be gay (although he later had a two-relationship with actress Kathleen Robinson, suggesting he was probably more clearly bisexual).

    Since those halcyon days, Araki has gone on to direct eight more films and work on several TV series, many of them receiving significant acclaim: his 10th film Kaboom being awarded the first Queer Palm award at the Cannes Film Festival

    Perhaps this proliferation of sudden edgy and musically “shoegaze”-influenced films detailing teenage alienation, confused sexuality, and societal aggression accounts for his recent silence in feature film-making after 2014. The exhaustion of its creator was perhaps inevitable. But we can only hope it is a pause instead of what appears as a transition into directing random episodes of TV series.

    Below I have gathered my reviews of those first two “hot” films of the early 1990s which brought the world’s attention upon this then 33-year-old wunderkind director. Reviews of his other works appear throughout My Queer Cinema volumes.

 

Los Angeles, September 24, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2025).