nowhere

Greg Araki's teenage apocalypse movies are a horrifying trilogy of youthful abandon and the end of days. 1997s Nowhere is a stylistic and sexy look at the terror of existence. The third and last entry into the apocalypse series is it the most bizarre. The two before, Totally Fucked Up and The Doom Generation gradually decline into the weirdness of Nowhere.

The horror of Nowhere is derived from the style. The film opens with Dark, our protaganist (among a cast of dozens) in the shower. It is only recognizable as a shower from the noise of the water running. Dark is surrounded by a world of white. He fantasizes about his lover, his crush and his fetishes. It has something in common with the most important shower scene on film, Psycho. Only when his green-faced mother burst in she degrades him for masturbating instead of stabbing him to death. Dying of embarrassment rather than blood loss.

Now we see the real world of the movie. Dark stands in his blue room, wearing an American flag towel a mural of a man with a revolver to his temple covers one entire wall. This movie is a bit exaggerated. The acting is over the top. The doom is ever present. He gets a call from his promiscuous bi-sexual lover Mel. She and her silver-tounged, blue-haired bitch girlfriend Lucifer pick him up and take him further into the world of the movie. They drive past a bloody car wreck, an unrecognizable human form reaches at them, they're unfazed. Now we happen upon Dark's crush, a shy green and blue eyed gay classmate named Montgomery. He waits by a bus stop the reads "GOD SAVE ME". The only innocent character in the film.

They arrive at their breakfast nook, a punk peach pit. Then we are bombarded with nearly every character in the film. An endless line of gay hardcore musicians, bubble gum wrapper bimbos, braceface geeks, surfer dudes, teen idols. By the time we make it to the twin brother and his lover we can't even remember who his sister was. they stand on a boardwalk having their fortunes told. "Death" the gypsy tells them, "Cool!" he ecstatically replies before sucking his girlfriend's face. A pair that only appears in the movie to have sex and cut each other.

Then we are taken back to Dark. Our anchor in this madhouse. He waits at a bus stop, three metal-mouthed, loud-mouthed valley girls chat incessantly next to him. "Who's sleeping with Tomás?" Across the street an anthropomorphic lizard aims a ray gun at them. Dark struggles to turn on his camera but by the time he gets it, ZAP. Their retainers lie melting to the bench.

I could go on describing the film as it goes. The horror of the film is its environment. The world is falling apart and these teenagers don't notice, too wrapped up in their own personal lives. This movie is a horror movie about our futures, the world is going to end but will we even take notice?