Cannes Buzz: Gregg Araki’s ‘Kaboom’ A Divisive Curio

It mostly worked, it did wonders for Gordon-Levitt’s career, and it left Araki with some good buzz. His films before this had always followed teens like Gordon-Levitt’s character – young, foul-mouthed punks dealing with sex and violence. There was a brief detour for the tame stoner comedy, “Happy Face,” before Araki went back to his roots with “Kaboom,” which follows Smith (Thomas Dekker, “A Nightmare on Elm Street“), who eats some drugged cookies and gets involved in a murder of a girl he’s seen in his dreams. Sounds pretty crazy, but did he pull it off?

Update: Joe Utichi from Cinematical has nothing but praise:”Araki draws humour from the most unlikely places throughout. When you think you see a punch line a mile away it ends up coming from somewhere else. You’re never sure you can trust what you’re seeing, nor the characters themselves, and when you start to figure it all out it throws a curveball. All the more jarring when you abandon any notion that it might have a familiar ending only for it to surprise you once again.”

Update: Leslie Felperin gives it the okay for Variety:”A campus comedy romp in which polysexual, zonked-out kids play sexual mix-and-match before discovering a plot to destroy the world, pic revisits the nihilistic hedonism of Araki’s mid-’90s films, but this time around with a welcome dose of stylistic restraint, drier wit and — dare it be said of material featuring auto-fellatio and someone being stabbed in the head — maturity. Still, outre ‘Kaboom’ won’t ignite far beyond fest and niche distribution circuits.”

Update: Writing for Obsessed with Film, Peter Willis in a case of love at first sight: “‘Kaboom’ is the most outrageously ridiculous thing you are likely to see (probably on DVD, rather than in the cinema)… The plot is beyond description and you’ll not be sure whether to laugh with or at the movie – but I promise, you’ll love it. If you are looking for a review of the movie then look elsewhere, as I couldn’t possibly begin to piece together this chaotic piece of cinema.”

Kirk Honeycutt of THR takes no prisoners: “This is mostly a sophomoric exercise in black comedy, supernatural excess and apocalyptic silliness mixed in with straight/gay/bi soft-core porn. All that’s truly strange here though is that Araki gets so few jolts or laughs from this hodge-podge of genres. Looks like ‘Kaboom’ will play to Araki’s fans without significantly expanding his base.”

The critic with the manliest name ever, Guy Lodge, at In Contention, tweets “best watched baked, no doubt, but a fun ride in any state, filled with really really ridiculously good-looking people.”

IFC’s Anthony Kaufman doesn’t buy into the Twitter hype: “For all of ‘Kaboom”s silliness, it never transcends it… there’s something anachronistic, even irreverent, about the film’s end-results… Whatever the reason, ‘Kaboom’ may end with a bang, but it feels like a whimper.”

Total Film tweets “Kaboom: teen sexcom cum mock-alyptic conspiracy thriller. Daft horny fun.”

Critic James Rocchi tweets “Araki’s mockery of everything (incl. his early work) plays as sexed-up shiny-colored collegiate-conspiracy CW-on-LSD freakout.”

Critic Aaron Hillis favorably compares it to another semi-recent sci-fi cult film, tweeting “Everything that failed in his annoying early comedies now deliciously bonkers. Oversexed thrills, out-hallucinating D.Darko.”