"Totally F***ed Up" is not a movie for everyone, and rather for those who are interested in an insightful yet jarring personal analysis of the disenfranchisement of our youth. In fact, I suspect that many a young man and women will witness with this movie to the point of empathy, as it angst will reflect and mimic their own. Fraught with teenage anxiety and fear, the movie jars the senses forcing one to see the damage inflicted upon our young men and women, by a society either unwilling or incapable of intervening on their behalf. Despite its original date of 1993/4, the story has lost none of its relevance, especially after 2010 having seen an unprecedented number of gay young men and women committing suicide. Whilst suicide is not a central theme to the story, it opens and ends with such, almost as if the message of consequence needs to be re-emphasised for the audience. We are after all beneficiaries of such consequence, if not participants through our apathy and omissions.
Greg Araki can be described as a modern seer for this genre, and his movies (of which there are several) have become somewhat prophetic and revealing. His call to action which loudly pronounces itself throughout this film, is a pronouncement that if nothing is done to save this generation, then we are all nothing more than purveyors of its destruction. Indeed "Totally F***ed Up" shows a generation in decline, caught up in a pervasive nihilism that rejects the normative 'order', finding identity in their peers and temporary fixation with carnal gratification. Sex is tool, used in the manipulation of others, and the mere satisfaction of self. It has little value other than to gratify the carnal lusting of self, and at times to be used for companionship as an offset to the debilitating isolation and loneliness so evident in their lives. All around them society seems to continue it mechanical existence, and yet these young men and women are hardly seen or acknowledged by a world quick to judge. Greg Araki exposes this hypocrisy, showing fleeting scenes of adult domestic violence, insanity and homelessness, inter-spliced between the stories of these young men and women. It is this society that seeks to hold the moral high ground, and its lessons on morality are both hollow and insincere. It has inherited the disenfranchised youth, not as a consequence of those young men and women, but because of its own barbarism and denial.
My one criticism of this DVD is the sound quality, which at times is extremely poor. I found some of the discussions to be difficult to hear, and as such did not follow some of the introspective as well as I should have.
Do not buy this movie if you are looking for a sleek Hollywood production, with all the niceties that come with such. This is more art, than it is film, and as such should be considered with some circumspection. At the same time it is not only art, it is a prophetic narrative and commentary of our times. My hope that it is not too late, to change the consequence Akari alludes to in his message!