An extremly underappreciated Araki movie, beautifully shot, compelling, and thought-provoking. Definitely one of my favorite indie movies to date. A must-watch for anyone interested in the coming of age genre.

Opening with a newspaper article on gay teen suicide, the tone of this early career Gregg Araki movie is set from early on as the film presents "15 random celluloid fragments" relating to the hardships of being young and homosexual in a predominantly heterosexual world. Araki's perpetual muse James Duval is solid as the closest the film has to a protagonist and some of the ideas that crop up (AIDS as a form of genocide) are decent, however, the film does not just consist of fragments, but is in fact completely fragmented as it jumps randomly between characters. None of this would be a problem if the characters were well fleshed out, but we barely get to know them outside of what they say in interviews. The supporting performances also vary from poor to adequate and the fact that all concerned mumble their lines is a poor aesthetic choice on Araki's behalf. 'Totally F***ed Up' is often cited as the first film in Araki's 'Teen Apocalypse Trilogy' alongside the vastly superior 'The Doom Generation' and 'Nowhere'. What makes both those films so remarkable is the way Araki weaves in fantastic and pseudo-scientific elements to symbolise the strangeness that the characters feel grappling with their sexuality. Both 'The Doom Generation' and 'Nowhere' are laced with semi-surreal comedic touches too. By comparison, 'Totally F***ed Up' is far more straightforward and serious-minded a tale. Evidently, this approach has appeal to some given the positive reputation that the film has built up over time, but suffice it so say, one's mileage will vary.

I saw this film in 1995 at the ICA in London, and it blew me away - and it still does today. Mostly because it treates the characters as genuine real PEOPLE,and without stereotypes. Even in today's age of "will and grace" crap, it still holds up as ten times more genuine.A lot of people complain that nothing much happens - but that's what thesecharacters are destined to do- nothing much. They're problem is that they can't find a place to hang out, to fit in, to find others like them. They are nihilistic outcasts, and because they're gay in 1993, they're even more outcast - butpartially by themselves. This film shows this better than any film I've seen since...-ken

This is one of the all-around worst movies I've ever seen. It says nothing you haven't heard before, it says it in a contrived, obviously scripted, cheesy "teen-talk" format (ie extensive use of words such as "grossorama" and "whatever" said in the most scripted way possible), the acting is awful, the cinematography is completely flat and uninteresting, and even though the movie is only 79 minutes long it drags more than anything I've ever seen. It felt like over an hour had gone by but when I checked my watch I realized I had only gotten ten minutes into the film! This may be more because of the terrible narrative structure than the bad acting and production values, but hey, those obviously aren't going to help much. I can't think of one reason for anyone to see this and I beg you not to do so, or your perceptions of the depths of badness that a movie can reach will be as "totally fu***ed up" as this movie is.