Greg Araki’s Kaboom melds sexual discovery-through-promiscuity with apocalyptic shenanigans and a pro-pansexuality brio that’s overly pleased with itself. Set at an unnamed college and in a variety of locales (dorm room, cafeteria, campus green, apartments) that deliberately look like stylized theatrical sets, the pioneering New Queer Cinema director’s genre-mash-up tale boasts a distinctly ‘90s patina, full of amateurish performances, cheesy hallucinatory effects, and smart-ass dialogue so tone-deaf (and yet self-satisfied) as to be embarrassing. The actual plot involves Smith (Thomas Dekker) falling in and out of men and women’s beds, as well as learning that his supposedly dead father is actually the leader of a cult that has strange ties to the disappearance of a classmate, to Smith’s regular fling London (Juno Temple), and to his recurring dream of the future. Through Smith’s saga as well as the related experiences of his insufferably snarky lesbian best friend Stella (Haley Bennett) and her witchy lover (Roxane Mesquida), Araki drools over unclothed torsos of hunky men while celebrating his cast of characters’ open-to-anything bedroom proclivities. Such an everything-goes ethos also extends to his surreal sci-fi/horror/coming-of-age story, but despite the script’s attempts to parallel Smith’s homo-hetero struggles and his daddy-related revelations – both of which lead to actualization – Araki’s material isn’t anarchic and invigorated but sloppy and limp. There may be more graphic chit-chat about anal sex and orgasms, but Kaboom remains a pale imitation of a David Lynch work.
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