Totally Fucked Up (1994)

Simply A Masterpiece

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Admirable film.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

with obvious allusions to vivre sa vie (the film is divided into 14 seemingly randomly segregate segments), gregg araki takes a journey into the lives of a group of gay teens in LA (not ALL gay teens, just a group). Well, maybe journey is the wrong word for it. Those familiar with Araki's other works are aware that they are loud, colorful, bombastic, and over-exentuated. They are also very MOBILE, in that a lot happens in the stories (usually someone gets killed, they run from johnny law, etc.). Totally F**ked up is not a mobile film. It doesn't go anywhere. Araki seems to proscribe in this film to the philosophy ( a Rossellini/ Godard staple) that life is less about actions or even interactions than boredom and other people's stories. James Duval plays a teen who broods in self-antipathy, spouting off despeate (and often pathetic) catch phrases like "life is sh**." or "love does not exist." But the underlying notion is that he really has lost faith and all hope, and as much as it ills him to become a statistic he keeps creeping that way, unable to find an outlet to truly express his real dismays.Araki's trademark self-coined slang and gother-than-thou art references are still in tact as we view this period of life that is less transitional emotionally than just a shift of behaviors- as we all act like babies. maybe it's just making up excuses - a character being lured into cheating because of a bootleg nine inch nails video- or maybe it's just talking in goofy language and popping pills in abandonned garages to watch each other fall over.as for the film's "crappy" look, I could either chock it up to lack of funds or intentional grainy filming. After all, every single one of his films are laced with characters using intentionally awful dialogue and intentionally bad acting to disguise its actual intentions. it makes since that he could do this visually too. And with the interspersed interviews with steven's video camera- it could easily be construed as the actual camera eye of the group, a 7th member if you will. either way, it didn't distract me.People who enjoyed Araki's other films because of the pretty colors and big loud noises need not apply themselves to this film, because it does take patience. but the result is a rewarding experience.

I've seen all of Gregg Araki's Films except the ones before "The Living End" and I thought all of them were fantastic. But not this one, it is a peice of garbage. First of all, this film gives no incite whatsoever on what it is like to be a gay teen. It never delves deep into the characters to show how they feel, and in the end we are left wondering what the hell happened. Ok so I saw the film about two years ago, so I can't comment fresh after seeing it. I have never been so aware of a film being shot on film as I was with this one. Araki uses WAY too many close-ups (which work for his other films) but in this one all there seems to be is CLOSE-UPS, CLOSE-UPS, CLOSE-UPS! It drove me insane. This probably would have worked if ANY of the characters were interesting in the slightest, but instead we are treated to LONG close-up pseudo documentary like shots of boring dialogue delivered by boring actors. I am so angry that I spent 100 dollars to import two copies of this for me and my friend, who is also a big Araki fan and couldn't even finish watching this piece of crap. Final Verdict, you will most likely not enjoy this film even if you are a big Araki fan. watch his other movies instead (except for Splendor ech!)

How interesting - gay teenagers sit around and talk about themselves and their pathetic lives. Then one of them kills himself. That's it, the entire story. Shame on you for wanting to *enjoy* watching a film. Oh, but it's got a groovy soundtrack!! (And no, I am not heterosexual.)

This is one of the all-around worst movies I've ever seen. It says nothing you haven't heard before, it says it in a contrived, obviously scripted, cheesy "teen-talk" format (ie extensive use of words such as "grossorama" and "whatever" said in the most scripted way possible), the acting is awful, the cinematography is completely flat and uninteresting, and even though the movie is only 79 minutes long it drags more than anything I've ever seen. It felt like over an hour had gone by but when I checked my watch I realized I had only gotten ten minutes into the film! This may be more because of the terrible narrative structure than the bad acting and production values, but hey, those obviously aren't going to help much. I can't think of one reason for anyone to see this and I beg you not to do so, or your perceptions of the depths of badness that a movie can reach will be as "totally fu***ed up" as this movie is.