Kaboom

Director: Gregg Araki Gregg Araki

Overview

Writer and director Gregg Araki revisits the day-glo universe of sex, drugs, and random perversity that informed his early films in this over-the-top dark comedy. Smith (Thomas Dekker) is an 18-year-old film student who is bisexual and has a ravenous erotic appetite; his best friend is Stella (Haley Bennett), who prefers the company of women but is just as enthusiastic about pursuing new lovers. Smith has been haunted by a series of recurring dreams featuring two beautiful women, one dark and enigmatic, the other similarly spectral with flaming red hair. This wouldn't bother him, except that the women from his dreams have begun appearing in real life -- Lorelei (Roxane Mesquida), Stella's new partner, is a magic aficionado who's a dead ringer for the dark-haired woman, and the red-haired girl (Nicole LaLiberte) is being pursued by a gang of masked assassins. Has Smith stumbled into a plot with possible world-changing consequences? Or is this all just the product of some hallucinogenic cookies he was served at a party? Kaboom received its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/31/2011
UPC:	0030306956794
Original Release:	2010
Rating:	NR
Source:	MPI HOME VIDEO
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:26:00
Sales rank:	35,395

Special Features

Commentary; Outtakes; Deleted Scenes

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Thomas Dekker	Smith
Haley Bennett	Stella
Chris Zylka	Thor
Roxane Mesquida	Lorelei
Juno Temple	London
Andy Fischer-Price	Rex
Nicole Laliberte	La Fille Rousse
Jason Olive	Hunter
James Duval	Le Messie
Brennan Mejia	Oliver
Kelly Lynch	Nicole
Catherine Breillat	Actor
Robin Guthrie	Composer
Vivek Maddala	Composer
Mark Peters	Composer
Ulrich Schnauss	Composer

Technical Credits

Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Andrea Sperling	Producer
Pascal Caucheteux	Executive Producer
Sebastian Lemercier	Executive Producer
Sandra Valde	Camera Operator
Jenny Jue	Casting
Johanna Ray	Casting
Jonathan Schwartz	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Writer/director Gregg Araki returns with Kaboom, a hyper-stylized, sex-drenched teenage romp that presents itself as a psychosexual murder mystery and turns into a wacky conspiracy-theory dark comedy, complete with secret societies and the threat of a nuclear holocaust. Araki draws upon themes presented in his acclaimed mid-'90s indie flicks, The Doom Generation and Nowhere, and brings the same relentless eroticism, alienated adolescent hijinks, and So-Cal witticisms to a film that's both a little campy and a little trashy. Kaboom centers on Smith (Thomas Dekker), a bisexual college freshman who fantasizes about hooking up with his bleach-blond surfer-dude roommate, but settles instead for sexually free British student London (Juno Temple). He's been haunted by a series of recurring dreams starring people from his life and two girls whom he's never met, but things get weird when the two girls show up in his waking life -- first, Lorelei (Roxane Mesquida), a dark-haired magic aficionado who's involved in a fatal-attraction situation with his best friend, Stella (Haley Bennett), and second, a red-haired girl who is being pursued by a gang of assassins. Next thing you know, Smith finds himself involved in a plot surrounding a murdered coed, a secret society, and the mystery of his father's disappearance. But has Smith stumbled into a plot with possible world-changing consequences? Or is it all just a drug-induced hallucination? It's fair to say that Araki is channeling the films of Richard Kelly. By combining the lucid dreams and existential musings of Donnie Darko with the apocalyptic undertones of Southland Tales, Kaboom isn't so much an homage as it is a parody. Visually, the film oscillates between bursts of pop colors and quick-cut over-the-top antics that work when the film eventually shifts gears and descends into glorious delirium, yet with a schizophrenic plot that fails to support the screwy tangents, the film fizzles out. Maybe Araki is too nostalgic as he returns to the preoccupations and youthful trademarks that characterized his previous endeavors. He pours every ounce of the fever-dream teenage fantasy that he has left into a vehicle that can't support the weight. Still, Kaboom has its champions -- it earned the Queer Palm award at last year's Cannes Film Festival -- and it'll be enjoyable for those drawn to wildly campy teenage sex comedies.