Three decades after writer/director Gregg Araki shook up the indie film world with his trilogy of teen films starring James Duval, he’s back with brand new director-approved digital restorations offering the most complete and technically polished versions of the films ever available. These are the director’s cut versions as Araki originally intended, newly edited to his specifications with restored footage previously removed from theatrical and various home-video releases.
Buy Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy Criterion Collection Blu-rayTotally F***ed Up offers 15 vignettes of disaffected youth on the fringes of L.A. street culture, just trying to get by through various mostly gay attractions and hookups. The teens are essentially all amateur actors, with even Duval just getting his toes wet with this debut principal role, making their interactions both endearingly real and poorly acted. There’s not much plot, just one scenario after another, but it offers a gripping time capsule of young queer life in the time when AIDS was still a likely death sentence.
The Doom Generation brought Rose McGowan to fame, while also expanding Duval’s range and featuring the rogue magnetism of Johnathon Schaech. It’s essentially a road movie that only travels around L.A., with the couple McGowan and Duval picking up the mysterious drifter Schaech as they veer from one outlandish encounter to the next with McGowan’s murderous ex-boyfriends. Although Araki subtitled this as a heterosexual movie, the romantic chemistry between all three leads is palpable and threatens to burn through the film at all times. It’s easily my favorite of the three, partially because it’s the most focused from a plot perspective, but also due to its timeless cool, with all three leads giving a master class in legendary stage presence.
Nowhere reverts to the loose structure of Totally F***ed Up, populated by far too many characters and vignettes to ever gel into a cohesive film. However, it has the benefit of Araki’s increased industry stature and budget, populated with the best acting ensemble and fun cameos such as Traci Lords, Shannen Doherty (RIP), Heather Graham, and Ryan Phillippe. Unfortunately, it also has a silly alien invasion subplot. Duval is paired with Rachel True, but neither get much time to shine with so many shenanigans at play. It’s a slickly produced product, but so slick that we lose sight of the wrenching personal insight suffused throughout Totally F***ed Up.
Watching the films now, it’s fascinating how current they seem, like the transgressive ‘90s Araki was actually just a prognosticator of our present times. All of the films are rife with gender fluidity, frank and open discussions of sexual desires, and a complete shunning of traditional societal expectations, even as the frequent teen grousing about their perceived hardships smacks more than a little like entitled Gen Z crybabies. While the first film is so rough in its themes and settings it reminds one of how scary LA was back in the day, by the time of the glossy sunshine happiness of Nowhere it feels like now, here.
The Blu-ray collection includes all three movies spread across two discs housed in a standard Criterion case. All three films have been digitally restored for this release, with varying results based on the vastly different technical quality of the original films.
Totally F***ed Up was filmed on a shoestring budget with dodgy lighting and sound, so the new 2K restoration is more than sufficient to enhance the 16mm original camera negative to its utmost potential. It is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio with a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and includes an archival audio commentary track with Araki, Duval, and actor Gilbert Luna. Its original guerilla production values result in a restoration that still looks about on par with DVD quality, with washed-out colors and some defects still evident, but the surround soundtrack is fairly clear and provides light environmental expanse to dialogue-heavy scenes.
The Doom Generation is light years ahead of its predecessor, and shines better than ever in its new 4K restoration. Working in 35mm with a decent-sized crew for the first time, Araki crafted a gem that holds up quite well, even as some growing pains are apparent. One can sense its indie roots, but it also feels like a complete, professional film, not a student effort. The restoration was crafted from a 35mm interpositive, with a 35mm answer print called into action for some scenes. Some specks are still present, especially in the end credits that seem to have missed restoration, but overall the digital remaster reveals new levels of detail and lovely color and contrast that were previously unavailable for home viewing. The 5.1 sound is crystal clear, although Araki didn’t really maximize his soundstage for the center-heavy soundtrack. The archival commentary track is also included, featuring all three principal cast members along with Araki.
By the time of Nowhere, Araki was operating at peak professional levels, resulting in a slick, brilliantly lensed product that is so technically proficient it looks like it was tailor-made for the 4K HDR era. The 4K restoration is super clear, with virtually no defects, sourced from the original 35mm camera negative and a 35mm interpositive for some scenes. Colors and brightness are so vibrant they’re almost blinding, so far from the drab shades of the first film that it seems impossible they were released only four years apart. Sound is also defect-free and offers the most lively soundstage of the three films. Even better, Araki gathered many of the principal players for a brand new commentary track, including a whopping seven original cast members headlined by Duval and True.
The set includes a generous collection of new bonus features, so many that Araki’s anecdotes get repetitive a few times. The best is James Duval’s Teen Apocalypse Archive, where Araki and Duval sit down and sift through archival set treasures from Duval’s storage unit. It’s clear they still have great affection for each other, and it’s just plain fun hanging out with them while they reminisce about the good old days. That’s not to say they’re gone to seed, as they both still look totally vital and ready for many more years of cinematic adventures.
Elsewhere, Araki gets interviewed on stage twice during L.A. screenings of the restorations, first by Gus van Sant for The Doom Generation and then by Andrew Ahn for Nowhere. He’s also in conversation with director Richard Linklater, his contemporary from when they both burst into the global film scene around the same time, as they discuss their early days and the industry changes through the decades. Finally, there’s a lengthy new documentary about the trilogy’s visual style, where Araki gathers his original collaborators behind the camera for an eye-opening conversation about the way they pulled off many of the signature looks throughout the trilogy. All of the bonus features are well worth watching, and it’s great to see Araki’s intense involvement in producing so much new supplemental material for this release.
