My first viewing of Gregg Araki‘s The Doom Generation happened at Sundance ’95 — 28 years ago and change.
Three months later I was working under Andy Olstein and the late Robert Sam Anson at Los Angeles magazine, and we’d all decided to run a big-spread piece about the new neo-noir fashion in movies (The Usual Suspects, Natural Born Killers, Leaving Las Vegas, the year-old Pulp Fiction, Araki’s film). I was the designated talent wrangler, and so I persuaded Araki, Bryan Singer, Benicio del Toro, Elizabeth Shue, Lara Flynn Boyle and Don Murphy to pose for photos at Smashbox.
I mainly remember the sploogey sexual stuff in Araki’s film, which I rather liked or was at least aroused by. It was basically a kind of hit-and-miss, hot-and-heavy, three-way relationship thing between Rose McGowan, James Duval and Jonathon Schaech. (An actual menage a trois happens toward the end with McGowan being love-muscled by both guys simultaneously.) The plot involved felonies and being chased around Los Angeles. If you want the chapter and verse, read the Wiki synopsis. Heidi Fleiss (whom I had done a fair amount of reporting about for Entertainment Weekly) has a cameo.
Tagline: “A Heterosexual Movie by Gregg Araki.”
McGowan was 21 or thereabouts during filming. On 9.5.23 she’ll hit the big five-oh.
A new 4K Bluray of a director’s cut will pop sometime in mid April or thereabouts. The NYC premiere will happen on April 6 at BAM. the following day it will begin shoewing at Manhattan’s IFC theatre; other bookings will follow in other cities.
Synopsis: Teenage lovers Jordan White and Amy Blue pick up a handsome drifter named Xavier Red while driving home from a club. Jordan gives Xavier the nickname “X”. A late-night stop at a convenience store leaves the three on the run when X accidentally kills the store’s owner, forcing the trio to hide in a motel to avoid arrest. Jordan and Amy have sex in the bathtub, while X watches from an outside window. X then learns from the local television news program that the store owner’s wife disemboweled her children with a machete before committing suicide. This leads X to believe that the trio won’t be considered suspects or be found by police.
Later that evening, Amy has sex with X, despite their mutual dislike of each other. Eventually Jordan finds out, and things become tense as the two men develop a lingering sexual attraction for one another. As the trio journeys around the city of Los Angeles, they continue to get into violent (almost comedic; every item the trio buys always comes out to $6.66) situations due to people either claiming to be Amy’s previous lovers or mistaking her for such. These incidents get the attention of the FBI, and their goal is to find Amy and kill her (exactly the same sentiment is voiced by several other parties in the film). She is mistakenly identified by a fast food window clerk as “Sunshine” and later by a character played by Parker Posey as “Kitten”.
Jordan, Amy and X spend the night in an abandoned warehouse, where they engage in a threesome. While Amy goes to urinate, Jordan and X are attacked by a trio of neo-Nazis, one of whom had previously mistaken Amy for his ex-girlfriend “Bambi”. The gang first severely beats up X, then holds Jordan down as the aforementioned neo-Nazi ties up and rapes Amy on top of an American flag. The group finally cuts off Jordan’s penis with pruning shears and forces the severed penis into his mouth. After Amy breaks free, she kills the neo-Nazis with the shears and escapes with X, leaving Jordan for dead. The film ends with Amy and X driving in her car. X offers Amy a Dorito, to no reply. Aimless on an empty road, the credits roll.
