The End of Living - No - The Living End

It could be said that you have not experienced cinema until you have seen a Gregg Akari film. Of course, one could also say that exact same thing about a handful of interesting directors including Federico Fellini, John Waters, or in more recent cinema history one such as Stanley Kubrick (it amazes me how many people I know have never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, Eyes Wide Shut – or even have not seen The Shining even though they know by heart how to recite the words Red Rum, Red Rum without knowing where they come from).

Regardless, Gregg Araki’s movies are normally low budget flicks where the central characters that make up the film are real (realism) but live in a surreal world. These movies are normally very much “in our face” either through the use of erotic images, foul language, and violence or an obsessive mixture of all three. One doesn’t sit comfortably though a Akari film – and one should not. Because sometimes a director is more in tune with the creation of his vision than he is in creating something easily marketable.

The Living End; an oxymoron title – is a buddy, romance, road-trip movie about Jon/Graig Gilmore and Luke/Mike Dytri. Jon is a film critic – whereas Luke is a street hustler. Their paths cross one day and what ensures is quite an oxymoron in itself. There is love and hate, life and death. They have the same differences.

Both Jon and Luke are HIV positive. And although they both know that the inevitable outcome of their circumstance is death – they embark on a new life together, although it’s not your typical life that you’d be proud to discuss with Ma and Pa. Luke has a temper and acts out in violent ways some of which border on the answer to the question of what is pleasure, as Luke likes to carry a gun around and sometimes stick it into his mouth while trying to achieve orgasm.

Jon is never quite sure why he allows himself to hang around Luke. It could be that Luke is totally hot – or that Luke is Jon’s fascination and the only one thus far in his life that actually gave him the time of day. Whatever Jon’s inner thoughts may be – he follows Luke around like a little puppy – which includes barking disapproval whenever Luke suddenly lashes out, seemingly without a second or even a moral thought.

And, although Gregg Akari drowns The Living End in tons of communication (even during sex – blasphemy!) and sexual situations (on the beach, in a shower, in a motel room, in the back of a car), and violence (killing a cop, robbing a bank, hitting a passerby over the head with a stereo) there’s still an attraction to this film more than just the interest in those intriguing vices that make up the controversial side to Akari. Even with a low budget, Akari captures this intrigue by never moving too fast. Space is allowed to breathe which in turn allows time for audiences to think – and many will think at least about the ending if not about the movie as a whole.

Akari even ends the film with an outright demeaning statement towards Republicans one that that re-enforces his position but also makes viewers think of why he makes such a statement.

Even though I highly recommend The Living End – I do understand a lot of the hesitation as a whole that turn off quite a few from this movie. To be absolutely blunt -–this movie isn’t for kids. Not even teenagers. Not like many other films that I think at least teenagers should watch so they don’t get shielded from the life of others to the point that they grow up misinformed and uneducated. The Living End isn’t really at all educational – and is, although an analogy made before, a gay Thelma and Louise; and we all know how uneducated that movie was expect perhaps introducing Brad Pitt to viewers eyes.

The Living End is very low budget, the film is grainy, the colors are bleak, and the audio sounds like it was recorded on the set with no post-production done to make it more mastered.

But that’s quite the beauty in The Living End. Gregg Akari is free to create his vision – a thread he continues with Totally F**ked Up and even The Doom Generation (even though he had more of a financial backing on that one). The movie is so simple yet effective, interesting yet bleak, enjoyable yet depressing. A great movie without falling into the trappings that define greatness.