No, you aren't alone. Awful, awful movie. One of the worst I've ever seen.
I get what Araki was going for here, but in my opinion he didn't come anywhere NEAR pulling it off. The film feels unfinished...as if crucial shots are missing which would have at least made the events somewhat coherent or meaningful. I had the same problem with The Doom Generation, in which either budgetary limitations or plain old directorial incompetance led to sequences that made almost no sense as narrative.
I have to admit that I'm oddly fascinated by the TONE of this movie. Despite getting the distinct impression that this film is hell itself put on film, I think that was kind of Araki's point. But it's just so unwatchable, with some characters not even featured long enough to get a clear look at them (a shame with such a unique, attractive cast), that I was just completely turned off. When you make a movie in which pretty much everyone is an amoral cypher, your film had damn sure better have some REAL visual appeal to make up for the unlikeable characters. This one has filters, sloppy editing, missing shots, and some of the most LAUGHABLY UNSUBTLE SYMBOLISM (visual AND otherwise) I have EVER seen in a movie.
It's amateur hour. I hated the characters (mainly because of the actors) in Avery's The Rules of Attraction too, but that film is MILES better than this.
If you want to see something like this done RIGHT (and in what I feel is a much more appropriate medium than film), read something by Bret Easton Ellis. I'd recommend starting with Less Than Zero (which this film actually lifted dialogue from in a few places), American Psycho, or The Rules of Attraction. They have a quality to them that is incredibly difficult to translate to the screen without PERFECT casting. American Psycho was the only film that really got it right, largely thanks to Christian Bale's amazingly inspired performance, but it omitted a huge amount of the novel.
Whatever you do, don't let this film or Rules of Attraction keep you from checking out these novels. They're genius.
Oh, and I can't agree with you on Julien Donkey-Boy. It's the only Harmony Korine film I've seen but I liked it a lot. I can understand why many people wouldn't, however. For me, it was worth seeing for Herzog's character alone.
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idazepam
15 years ago
The thing about Araki is that he doesn't give a poop about these rules.
Should I make a teen comedy? Or a realistic teen drama? Or an extended music video where the cutest guy BLOWS up and becomes a drooling UFO at the end? He mixes them all up and that's what I love about his films. I loved Nowhere because it was so totally fu cked up and unpredictable, but foremost extremely funny. And sad. And yes, I've read all BEE's novels (except for the Informers) and also loved the Rules of attraction film. If you separate the film adaptation and the original source everything becomes MUCH easier.
If it's anything people should stay away from it's the Less than zero film AKA the only film that has ever made me positive about the thought of a remake.
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elfiedaelf
15 years ago
Not arguing with your opinion (which i personally think is on of the the most idiotic things it's possible to do) but you put a lot of effort into that post didn't you. :P (not a bad thing)
i found this film slightly disturbing, not particularly good, but not bad. How vague i am...
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LLS
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