Countdown to Cannes 2010: The Films: KABOOM

In 2007 Gregg Araki's 'Smiley Face' made a huge impression on both the Sundance Film Festival and Director's Week at Cannes, and it also left a great big impression on yours truly. It was my first experience of Gregg Araki, and I was pleasantly surprised: I had heard briefly of the director with a fairly fresh take on film-making who dealt in gay and independent movies (and is a mjor player in the New Queer Cinema movement) but hadnt seen anything.

Araki's career has in fact been less than prolific, since his 1987 debut 'Three Bewildered People in the Night', Araki has made only a relatively small number of films, each dealing with relationships between characters and predominantly sexuality, and has cemented his position as one of the darlings of the festival circuit with indie-cult classics like his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" ('Totally Fucked Up', 'The Doom Generation' and 'Nowhere').

It was with 2005's 'Mysterious Skin' that Araki broke into public consciousness on a sustainable level, his adaptation of the novel by Scott Heimfinding both critical acclaim and generally good public reaction. The film is typically affecting, as it tells the story of a teenage hustler and a withdrawn young man obsessed with alien abductions, and how they both deal with the sexual abuse they suffered from their Little League coach when they were children. It is in stark contrast to the light-hearted stoner comedy of 'Smiley Face', but 'Mysterious Skin' certainly deserves to be held as one of the best examples of the independent film in modern times. And it is probably Araki's best to date.

Araki's tenth film, 'Kaboom' will be one of Cannes 2010's Midnight screenings, and looks to be the continuation of the director's artistic and philosophical manifesto. The film deals with the sexual awakening of group of college students, though somewhat confusingly bills itself as a science fiction, seemingly moving away from Araki's usual generic monotony.

The best synopsis Ive found floating around the net has the film billed in this rather intriguing manner:

A hyper-stylized 'Twin Peaks' for the Coachella Generation, featuring a gorgeous, super hot young cast, 'Kaboom' is a wild and sex-drenched horror-comedy thriller that tells the story of Smith (Thomas Dekker), an ambisexual 18-year-old college freshman who stumbles upon a monstrous conspiracy in a seemingly idyllic Southern California seaside town€

Smith€™s everyday life in the dorms €“ hanging out with his arty, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor €“ all gets turned upside-down after one fateful, terrifying night. Tripping on some hallucinogenic cookies he ate at a party, Smith is convinced he€™s witnessed the gruesome murder of an enigmatic Red Haired Girl who has been haunting his dreams.

How could you not be tickled by that plot?!

Reasons to be Excited

- The plot sounds brilliant, even for movie fans not yet familiar with Araki's work, but there is one factor more than any that excites me: I have to confess I love drug movies. Not because I'm a drug user (other than the odd hundred glasses of delicious beer, I'm pretty vanilla these days), but because I am always very interested in how film-makers present mind-altered states. Araki's 'Smiley Face' is a beautifully funny look at the effects of marijuana, without the usual glamour or hipness (it is far more a comic tragedy, looking at how much of a fool you become when youre high), while last year's festival entrant 'Taking Woodstock' has an immaculate portrayal of acid taking and 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' brilliantly jumps from one drug experience to another.

- Araki is somewhat of an indie star-maker, having cast both Rose McGowan and Denise Richards in his work, as well as offering arguably 2010's hottest talent-to-be Joseph Gordon-Levitt one of his first roles coming out of '3rd Rock From the Sun' in 'Mysterious Skin'. What price on Thomas Dekker becoming a far more familiar face (and not becoming just another victim of the new 'Nightmare On Elm Street'), or the wonderfully named Juno Temple landing more plum roles after being one of the best things about 'Atonement'?

- With any luck, Araki might rescue James Duval from the DVD Bargain Bin. Once an absolute darling of indie cinema (most famously he played Frank in 'Donnie Darko'), and something of a muse for Araki, having starred in 'Totally Fucked Up', 'The Doom Generation' and 'Nowhere', Duval now seems to pick film roles with absolutely no prejudice (hence his forthcoming role in the abysmally, but also shockingly irresistibly named cannibal horror 'Mondo Holocausto!' Hopefully his renewed association with Araki will halt the madness.

- Last year's midnight slot showing- 'Drag Me to Hell' was just brilliant. Not only was the film an absolute Raimi-shaped triumph, the midnight slot gave it something extra that the subsequent showings would undoubtedly have missed out on. Here's to 'Kaboom' channelling the ambience of the time-slot and making good on its potential.