December 4: The Living End

Back in the heady days of the early 1990s when New Queer Cinema was at its nascent best, Gregg Araki broke through at Sundance with his anarchic road movie The Living End. I managed to catch the original showings back in 1992 in New York and came away somewhat impressed by the director's freewheeling style. He went on to craft similarly loosely plotted films including his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" (Totally Fucked Up, 1993; The Doom Generation, 1995; and Nowhere, 1997) before turning to slightly more mature themes in the romantic comedy Splendor. He displayed a newfound maturity with the poignant Mysterious Skin (2005). I haven't yet seen Smiley Face (2007), his last released film to date.

Since I upgraded my cable system, I'm now able to stream films over the Internet and so I took advantage of my Netflix subscription to watch The Living End. I can't say exactly why I chose this one to watch except that it had a shorter running time than most of the films in my queue, it was World AIDS Day and perhaps I was just in the mood for a rollicking road movie about two HIV-positive gay men acting like Thelma and Louise.

Araki's plots are loose and leave a lot of open-ended issues. Some of his characterizations are broad, like the lesbians who give a ride to Luke (Mike Dytri), the studly hitchhiking drfter who turns out to be one of the film's heroes. Our other hero is movie critic Jon (Craig Gillmore) who, as the film opens, is told he is HIV-positive. Now remember, this was in the early 1990s when there were fewer drugs available and a diagnosis more or less meant a death sentence. Jon doesn't quite know how to react and while driving around, he crosses paths with Luke -- who has just fended off some over-the-top gay bashers, possibly having killed one or all of them.

Jon is a bit of a naif, so he takes Luke in, and the sexual tension gives way to real sex. The more they hang out together, the more Jon comes to realize that Luke is a loose cannon, releasing his anger at the world through violence. Jon breaks it off, but Luke worms his way back in one night when he confesses he may have killed a policemen. The pair go on the run up the California coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco. For the first time in his life, Jon is liberated while Luke begins to develop actual feelings.

And then ... well, the film sort of peters out. The denouement is meant to signify something grander than it conjures. The two leads are pleasant to look at and share a comfortable chemistry. Araki takes the cliche of the good girl falling for the bad boy and adds a same-sex spin to it. The film's ending leaves the viewer pondering about this couple's fate -- and whether they deserve each other or not.

While watching the movie, I had a vague recollection of scenes and characters, yet there were some surprises as well. I recall being mildly impressed with the film when it was released in 1992. I felt about the same way this time. It's not something I'd want to see again -- at least not for another decade, but it is a curiosity in Araki's career.

Rating: C+