Review of Kaboom (2010) by Will T — 02 Mar 2011

Just as its characters avoid any sort of sexual label, Kaboom manages to avoid any sort of genre distinction. It plays all at once as a comedy, romance, horror, sci-fi, apocalypse, teen angst and an avant garde exploration of human sexuality. Even for Gregg Araki, that's a lot of genres to pull off all in one movie and he almost does so successfully.

But unfortunately, in trying to cover so much ground, Araki spreads his material too thin, especially in a movie under 90 minutes. Kaboom is not a scary horror movie, a thought provoking sci-fi or a moving romance. However, the two things that Araki does get right are the comedy and the sexuality. The movie follows Smith through a series of dreams and sexual encounters. On top of trying to make sense of himself, he must also figure out a mystery that begins with the disappearance of a fellow student.

Kaboom serves as a vessel for Araki's liberal theories on human sexuality. Smith does not contain himself to male or female partners, neither gay nor straight and not even bisexual. Smith is whatever, in the most open sense of the word. He's raw impulse and desire, taking it even further than most gays would. (This is the obvious representation of Araki who, as an openly gay man, still dated an actress in 1997 and received judgment from the gay community). This liberation of sex is a spectacle in itself, something to talk about at least and an ideal to be adopted at best.

To the purpose of sex, Kaboom tries to imitate its subject matter (racy college students) in its style- quick cuts into the next scenes and awkward transitions in between (much like the lives of today's teenagers). But in doing so, Araki also prevents the movie from sustaining any sort of real emotion beyond disorientation, which is also very teenage but not especially helpful to the audience. Araki purposely ends scenes unfinished. In one scene Smith shares information about the vanishing of a dead body. And that's the end of the scene; it fades into a dream sequence after he says so leaving the audience thinking, "so what?". Had Araki simply elongated some scenes and completed his own unfinished thoughts, Kaboom would have been better twofold.

After Mysterious Skin (Araki), I was hoping he would continue creating provocative and sustained dramas. But Kaboom marks his return to the apocalyptic teen genre. It's impossible to form an attachment to any of these films, Kaboom included. The movies end up being too unfocused and crazy in their attempt to create this absurdist thought Araki is so fond of. His movie jumps abruptly from spiked cookies to murder mystery to dream mystery to sex to murder mystery to more sex.

Araki would do better to create films with absurdity in them instead of creating absurd films. Absurdity and confusion- they're interesting concepts and laughable at times, but it's hard to find yourself in tune with them when Araki presents them, that is without rhythm. Kaboom is funny (quirky dialogue and everything), but hard to feel for because of its disjointedness.