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Made for a fraction of the cost of Oliver Stone's similarly themed
Natural Born Killers, Gregg Araki's
The Doom Generation is more persuasively outragous in its cultural satire, scarier in its violence, and more profound in its vision of a hate-fueled, media-drunk America seemingly determined to eat its young and dwell stupidly on their vengeance. Rose McGowan (
Scream), James Duval (
Nowhere), and Johnathon Schaech (
That Thing You Do!) star as a trio of friends (Schaech's character actually being a complete stranger who steps into their car and into their lives one club-hopping night) who end up on a sex-and-crime spree that draws the fixed stare of television coverage. Araki makes a case for their continuing innocence in a society whose anti-outsider malevolence is barely disguised in the media but is quite naked out in the heartland, where a punishing level of bigotry is not unknown. Araki's jokes and techniques are crude yet forceful, and his anger is absolutely clear where Stone's was obscured and overreaching. The climax is among the most shattering and enraged scenes of '90s cinema. The DVD includes cast information, a theatrical trailer, and French and Spanish subtitles.
--Tom Keogh
From The New Yorker
Gregg Araki's aimless road movie is chicly anarchic-and a bore. The grunged-down teen-age characters (named Xavier Red, Jordan White, and Amy Blue) are pretty, and they talk like foul-mouthed Lolitas, but only when they leave the violent roadway for a motel bed does the film develop any snap. Araki has made a punk-rock movie, all dirty fingernails and spit, but it's no fun-he's forgotten the mosh pit. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006
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