"The Doom Generation," C or D

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It's been a few years, like seven, since I've seen The Doom Generation, but so far it's held fast as my official "worst movie of all time." And yet, and yet. Obviously something lurks beneath the cliches, the bad music, the ugliness of the whole thing.

Could it be that this is the "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" for 1995? Will Rhino include this in their "Mondo 90s" holographic ultra-DVD collection in 2025? I'd add more, but I hardly remember it.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 25 April 2003 00:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Margaret Cho had a cameo. Anytime a number appeared, like a total on a cash register, it was "666." This is movie that rewards multiple viewings.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 25 April 2003 00:41 (twenty-two years ago)

i saw it and thought that it was one of the most pretentious, overblown pieces of shit i'd ever seen (aside from Fassbinder). such an obvious "lemme jump on the zeitgeist/grungey bandwagon" move that kept trying to hit you over the head with its hipper-than-thouness. but maybe that reflected my growing ennui with the 1995-96 american "alternative culture" vibe and doom generation really isn't as bad as i remember.

i think the soundtrack's OK, though -- it does have the Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain!

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 25 April 2003 00:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Dud, dud, dud, dud, dud and dud.

Skinny Puppy also had a cameo. Still dud.

― fletrejet, Friday, 25 April 2003 00:48 (twenty-two years ago)

i dunno, to me it didn't take itself all that seriously. still not all that great, tho.

funnier token grunginess: black circle boys

― ron (ron), Friday, 25 April 2003 00:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Preaching to the converted, but yes, this is an awful movie that tries entirely too hard to be disturbing or cool or something.

Speaking of Cocteau Twins, if I remember correctly, some character in the movie actually says "Pearly-dewdrops' drops," and not in reference to the CT song. I remember cringing so hard.

A friend tells me that Nowhere is worth seeing, but I won't be hunting down any Araki movies any time soon.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Other cameos: Perry Farrell, Parker Posey and Heidi Fleiss

Still a piece of shit of a film.

― martin mushrush (mushrush), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:03 (twenty-two years ago)

It's an easy target, but here's Roger Ebert ripping into it (zero star rating!):
http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1995/11/1006063.html

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, it's monumentally bad, but will people find a certain charm in 20-30 years? Like Reefer Madness or something.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, it's monumentally bad, but will people find a certain charm in 20-30 years? Like Reefer Madness or something.

Yeah ... i gotcha now, chris (and my bad for ignoring yer beyond the valley of the dolls reference). i dunno whether its "charm" is quite the same as btvoftd, though -- there's just something a bit more smarmy and snarky about doom generation (again, kinda like the whole mid-nineties grunge thing in retrospect come to think of it). i think that this combination of smarm and snark -- which Ebert gets at perfectly by quoting the film's press release (what kind of person could write such a snotrag of attitude?) -- ultimately differentiates it from btvoftd. but i can't speak for anyone else, esp. something as personal as nostalgia or retrospect.

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:21 (twenty-two years ago)

(nb: the "snotrag of attitude" being the doom generation press-release, not Ebert's review of the film.)

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (which was written by Roger Ebert, as most people probaly know so nevermind) was very self-aware, so perhaps it can't be directly compared to the Doom Generation. I mean that it's a cultural artifact that defines an era for those who didn't live through it, while being incredibly irritating for those who did.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I will always give Gregg Araki credit for being a music geek and pretty good reviewer -- it was his writing in the LA Weekly that got me into Ministry and from there into a hell of a lot of things. But everything I've seen of his movies is sorta headscratching.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah i didn't like the movie either, but the end credits was the first time I heard slowdive (blue skied an clear)

― Elliot (Elliot), Friday, 25 April 2003 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

dud beyond dud!!

― geeta (geeta), Friday, 25 April 2003 05:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Dud for all the reasons mentioned above, as are most of Araki's later films, but I did see one of his early movies, Three Bewildered People In The Night, that was not bad.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 25 April 2003 07:57 (twenty-two years ago)

doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom doom doom doom doom doom dooom dooom doooooom DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

― Grr (starry), Friday, 25 April 2003 08:18 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought the chick was funny

― dave q, Friday, 25 April 2003 09:51 (twenty-two years ago)

You have got to think that this movie led Marilyn Manson towards Rose McGowan.

If you like "Behind the Valley of the Dolls" kind of cheeze, take a check on "The Chase", which is a mid60s movie with Brando as a small town sherrif and all sorts of sleazy town folks including Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda & a cast of memorable character actors. It isn't quite as over the top, but it is a big budget film that just went way too melodramatic. It has plenty of "Virginia Woolf" middle class people gettng wasted, sleeping around and talking down to people which I find quite funny.

― earlnash, Friday, 25 April 2003 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic. I really truly honestly love this movie. And I was so disappointed after finding out that the vhs I had was the censored version so on Valentines Day 1998 my roommates and I rented the uncut version and Nowhere. But of course I love crap that stands up to repeated viewings. It has the most brilliant one off lines. My fav "You fucking chunky pumpkin head." I mean, really, it's just so bad but so wonderful at the same time. You can't take anything in it seriously.

Nowhere was a somewhat disappointment. And Splendor, although having a really great soundtrack, just seemed too mellow and pretty to be a Greg Araki movie. Plus it had the awful Kathleen "Steve Sanders g'friend" Robertson in the lead.

― Carey (Carey), Friday, 25 April 2003 13:01 (twenty-two years ago)

is that the one where they have a 3some going?? her and two dudes livng together?

― ron (ron), Friday, 25 April 2003 14:36 (twenty-two years ago)

four years pass...

LOL

― Eisbaer, Monday, 17 March 2008 02:35 (seventeen years ago)

Of all the Araki films I've seen (which is admittedly only a handful), this is the WORST. Especially once I saw he was capable of making something like Mysterious Skin, it just made this one seem EXTRA bad.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 17 March 2008 02:38 (seventeen years ago)

It was a stupid movie, but had a Troma-like appeal. Still, the director went on to make the brilliant, disturbing filmMysterious Skin.

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 17 March 2008 02:41 (seventeen years ago)

Somehow I missed JF's prior message. But yeah, Mysterious Skin is a real work of art.

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 17 March 2008 02:43 (seventeen years ago)

WE GET IT YOU GUYS LIKE MYSTERIOUS SKIN

― s1ocki, Monday, 17 March 2008 04:57 (seventeen years ago)

But so much naked McGowan

― Savannah Smiles, Monday, 17 March 2008 13:40 (seventeen years ago)

crap

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 17 March 2008 13:44 (seventeen years ago)

Of all the Araki films I've seen (which is admittedly only a handful), this is the WORST

Of all the films I've seen, this is the WORST.

― James Morrison, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 03:46 (seventeen years ago)

crap

-- Alex in NYC, Monday, 17 March 2008 13:44 (Yesterday) Link

you're mellowing with age, alex.

― Eisbaer, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 03:49 (seventeen years ago)

it's a bad movie, but i have fond memories of it because the screening i went to was a top-secret-shh thing that the employees of the rundown knoxville arthouse put on after hours when their manager refused to show it. i guess he didn't know what it involved until they already had the print, and they had this screening the night before he made them send the print back. so it was just a handful of arthouse and alt-weekly geeks drinking beer after midnight behind locked doors. gregg araki, banned in knoxville.

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 04:13 (seventeen years ago)

(i believe his objections were to the sex and violence more than to it being bad.)

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 04:14 (seventeen years ago)

shit.

― Gukbe, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 06:53 (seventeen years ago)

Michael Schaech looks real fucking good in this.

And I think Nowhere is worse.

― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 13:29 (seventeen years ago)

four years pass...

God, this dialogue is like out-Junoing Juno

― bell biv devo (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 6 October 2012 04:31 (thirteen years ago)

Also good lord is this film bad at concealing its ott effort to be all things hip and edgy

― bell biv devo (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 6 October 2012 04:34 (thirteen years ago)

Also Parker Posey uttering "I'm gonna lob... his... dick off. Like a chicken head."

― bell biv devo (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 6 October 2012 04:44 (thirteen years ago)

OMG they are having sex to Aphex Twin's "On"!

― bell biv devo (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 6 October 2012 05:21 (thirteen years ago)

twelve years pass...

Yes, it's monumentally bad, but will people find a certain charm in 20-30 years? Like Reefer Madness or something.

Nope! All of what passed for 1990s edginess garbled into an ugly mess.

― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 11 May 2025 04:53 (seven months ago)

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