Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Doom Generation (1995)

Amy: Life is lonely, boring and dumb.

I don't think I entirely understood how formative this movie was for me until I re-watched a screener of the new 4K restoration of it last weekend -- it was the first time I'd seen it in some time; long enough that I have some distance from who I was in my late teens / early 20s when I first saw Gregg Araki's films and can see that he was responsible for stamping my personality as much as Paul Reubens had been earlier in my life. The outward cynicism giving way to a creamy dreamy center; posturing as too cool for school when you're really the type to whimper like a puppy in bed. That teenage feeling that the world is collapsing around us... oh wait that one's still around. 

Indeed Araki's films still feel disarmingly immediate today. The Doom Generation is very much of its moment in the 90s -- it's highly noticeable that these characters aren't on their phones -- but also profoundly stepped outside of time too, unto a vacant lot timelessness. They wander through the Platonic Ideal version of Trash Americana, hotels and convenience-stores and pool halls, all littered with celebrity detritus and mannequin aesthetics. Everything costs six-sixty-six, and the apocalypse is nipping at their combat boots every step of the way. 

Anyway the 4K restoration is out here in NYC today -- I posted a trailer here -- and it is indeed a "Director's Cut" of the film, which hasn't been seen since it played Sundance originally back in 1995. It had been long enough since I'd seen the movie that I wasn't entirely sure of what scenes and moments are new, but they're definitely in there, sprinkled about. The film will be traveling outward from NYC so keep your eyes to the ground; and I have zero doubt this one will be getting a deluxe blu-ray treatment before the year is through. Now bring on the rest of Araki's movies!

THE PEOPLE DEMAND A TEENAGE APOCALYPSE BOXED-SET! https://t.co/kMNfifzdBT

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 6, 2023