The first gregg araki film I ever watched was "Nowhere". I first thought it was trying to be too weird like David Lynch. Later on I took an interest in Araki cause this is a filmmaker that wants to be different and this is the kind of guy that knew what kind of music kids actually listened to and what their thoughts were.Its hard not to miss all the metaphors and symbolisms in the film. Of course these interpretations are what makes a movie stand out. I could'nt say what strikes me the most about this film, I only watched it for the violence and nude scenes. I just saw it also as a satire on the teen genre and road movies. They cuss like sailors and have very little empathy for just about everything (with a little exception for the dog they ran over.)The movie has three characters:Amy blue Jordan white Xavier redTheir last names obviously references the American flag so I guess they represent todays American youth.I've read about metaphors about Xavier being a devil and Jordan as an angel fighting over Amy blue who is in interpretation of the human race. I'll admit I didn't look at it that way when I first viewed the film. I just saw it as a straight forward indie film. With exaggerations of American pop culture and a 90's soundtrack. Of course I do like it that the film has layers of meaning and what araki wanted to convey in his messages.Themes:Every stranger they bumped into seem to know who Amy blue is and they call her by different names. They also have violent tendencies towards her.666. I don't need to tell you what that symbol is about, it is used numerous times.The feds who are after Amy blue for the murder of a store clerk. the men sitting across from each other are twins. This is a pun about them being a uniformed society.Billboard signs messaging them about the rapture. Of course araki is satirizing Americas obsession with the end of the world. The world hasn't ended yet *knock on wood* but the perfect world Amy and Jordan created does end with his death. So the human race might not end anytime soon but each person has their own end that will eventually come.In the end after Jordans death Amy and Xavier keep riding in spite of their traumatic event. Moving on is the only thing they can do. Xavier breaks the ice by offering her a bag of doritos.

This movie is mostly garbage. Granted, it's not completely garbage, but it's at least...90% garbage. I have several issues with this movie.First of all, nothing in this movie is original. Everything you see in the film was already done in 'Clockwork Orange', reused in 'Natural Born Killers', and now presented in 'Doom Generation', only to be used again in 'The Devil's Rejects' later.Second, while Clockwork Orange was a brilliant movie, and Natural Born Killers was at least very well made, Doom Generation is mindless dribble. If Dazed and Confused was written and directed by a 16 year old idiot, it would be this movie. Let's admit it, even those of you who like the movie only reference the ending, which was the movie's strongest point.Third, the symbolism and metaphors were so obvious, it was retarded. Your average dog could have spotted them.Fourth, just like Natural Born Killers, this movie misses the point. People desensitized to unrealistic violence, either through movies or video games, don't become desensitized to real violence. Although media and parent groups scream otherwise, people who watch violent movies and play violent video games are some of the least violent people in the world. The only people desensitized to real violence are people who are constantly subjected to real violence. Go to the middle east, and you'll see teenagers who are desensitized to violence. For a good movie about desensitization to violence, watch Taxi Driver, or Full Metal Jacket.The true consequence of being desensitized to violence through movies or games, is that we forget what death really is. This doesn't translate into actual violence, just a lack of empathy for real victims, and a general detachment from reality.Fifth, the movie tips its hand with the random, over the top sexuality and ridiculously immature gore. It claims to be a critique of bad exploitation movies, but in reality, it's just another exploitation movie, and not a very good one at that. Take the Asian convenience store scene. No slasher movie would ever put something that stupid in it. By sinking lower than their supposed target, they lost any chance at being considered credible.Sixth, and most importantly, they're psychopathic snobs. The worst case of this is still The Devil's Rejects, but this movie takes a close second. Psychopathic snobbery follows this line of thinking: "I kill people on a whim, but it's okay because 'fill in the blank'." In Devil's Rejects, it's supposedly okay because they aren't hypocritical, or completely sexually depraved. In Natural Born Killers, it's okay because they were molested as children. Even in the Matrix series, they constantly cause the deaths of innocent people (especially during Neo's flight to save Trinity in the second movie, which had to have killed about a thousand people), but it's okay because they're rebels, and everyone else's life means nothing. In The Doom Generation, they're supposedly desensitized, and they cared about that dog, so it's okay for them to kill on a whim, or so the movie wants us to believe. Psychopathic snobs live by the credo: 'It's okay to commit murder, rape and torture, because the victims don't count as real people.' This is actually what gives the ending its power. For in the ending, the tables are turned. Suddenly, they're attacked by other, stronger psychopathic snobs, you believe that the lives of the main characters mean nothing. For the first time, they get to experience what it means to be a victim, and be at the mercy of maniacs who consider them to be less than human. The main characters aren't any better or worse than the Neo Nazis of the ending. They just have different targets for their homicidal whims.Good ending, but not enough to make up for the rest of the movie.

Unless your girlfriend is cool, this is not a date movie- weird relationship situations and totally random bloody violence abound. Our main plot is centered around Amy- a hot goth-looking chick who is generally annoyed at the world and out of place- her two sidekicks are a sweet but pathetic boyfriend and a new dangerous man Xavier who is rude but knows the ropes better than his two unlikely partners.Something pulp fictionish happens at a store and the trio hit the road and continually encounter people that have a strange desire to be very close to Amy. Everything they buy costs the same amount- it's quite dreamlike at points.This nudges some gay sexual boundaries here and there but it's usually tastefully shot scenes so we don't have to see explicit details- but you still get that potentially uncomfortable idea thrown at you since they are continually co-habitating as a trio. If you have a lot of gay rage you are going to be annoyed and probably would make a good drinking buddy of the guys showcased at the end of the flick.All in all this is like a teenagers Dali painting on film with a gloomy kinda goth vibe to our lead character. This is pulp all the way- a violent decadent indulgent confection of letting the story wander right into the depths of insanity without blinking. My kind of flick. It would have been nice to have about eleven times more female nudity since our lead is quite the cutie with a nice chest.This movie has no point- and that was the point.

I don't object to the sex or violence, or even the characters' reactions to the situations they find themselves in. What bothers me is I get the sense that the story(?) is secondary to Araki's attempt to have The Doom Generation create the same iconic cultural buzz that Pulp Fiction did the year previous. It's obvious so much time and energy was spent perfecting the crazy/sexy/cool look and feel of the movie, that the story, acting and the (cringe-inducing)dialog were duly sacrificed to achieve some kind of pop culture statement. The problem is that Araki's commentary on the younger generation was so exaggerated and trite it turned me right off and muted any semblance of plot or characterization that remained. Araki comes off like someone who has very little inherit understanding of the generation he's trying to be the mouthpiece for. Xavier licks ejaculate off of his hand, but the only reason why it exists is to 'freak out the hetero squares'. The film bursts at the seams with content that exists only to shock. The trouble is, it has a hard time even doing that.The truly sad thing is, this movie was not without potential. The premise was interesting, the look was good, but if we were given just one more good element, it might have been a watchable film. As it stands, the movie spins its wheels in the mud -- making a lot of commotion, but ultimately never going anywhere. The dialog, I'm convinced, was written solely with the purpose that at least one of the put-downs or sarcastic comebacks would somehow become a popular catchphrase amongst the hip gen-x crowd. Same with the 666 thing. That kind of gimmickry might accentuate a good film, but it also makes a bad film worse, because it comes across as pretentious and self-serving.As a film about the generation of which I'm a member (I was nineteen when this came out), I don't know if I should feel insulted or embarrassed for Araki. One thing's for sure, he should be embarrassed about making this sleazy schlock.