“They’re not made for you”: Gregg Araki doesn’t want his parents to watch his movies
“You’re not even human, are you? You’re like a life-support system for a cock,” exclaims Amy in The Doom Generation, Gregg Araki’s second instalment in his Teen Apocalypse Trilogy. The filmmaker has incorporated countless lines like this into his movies, many of which feel like truly authentic encapsulations of American adolescence on the fringes of society.
The filmmaker is a key member of the New Queer Cinema movement that boomed in the 1990s, which brought attention to stories about gay characters written and directed by LGBTQ+ filmmakers. Araki started making very low-budget movies in the late ‘80s, including The Long Weekend (O’ Despair). However, with 1992’s The Living End, he asserted himself as a major figure in this new cinematic movement – a nihilistic film that brings attention to the bleak realities of the AIDs epidemic and the American government’s lack of care for those facing the life-threatening illness.
Araki then followed the film with his Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, which featured Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere, all of which starred James Duvall in a central role. The movies explored the lives of American teenagers, with many of these characters identifying as queer. Explicitly sexual and violent, these films highlighted feelings of isolation, being misunderstood, the need for escape, and a lack of care at the hands of supposed authority figures.
In comparison to teen movies of the time, Araki took a completely different approach to depicting adolescent life. In Totally Fucked Up, the characters often used handheld cameras to express their feelings, directly communicating with the audience in a way that felt so real and relatable for many audiences. The low-budget charm of his movies helped to attract a cult following – one that is still going strong today.
Araki is truly an ‘alternative’ filmmaker – never foregoing brutal and surreal storylines in favour of Hollywood glossiness. Even when he has made movies with slightly bigger budgets, the themes he has explored have often been hard to stomach. Still, Araki knows how to have fun, and among serious topics, like rape, murder, and even apocalyptic aliens, there are countless witty lines that have been quoted by his fans for years since.
Due to the confrontational nature of his work, Araki’s work has divided many audiences, with some people writing his movies off as campy trash. The filmmaker is happy that some people love his movies while others don’t. Talking to Roger Ebert, he stated, “I’m used to my movies having these very passionate and sometimes divisive reactions, and honestly, I don’t really care. If you get my movies, they’re for you. If you don’t get them, they aren’t for you.”
He added: “That’s why I make these indie movies. My movies aren’t meant to be all things for all people. They’re not fucking four-quadrant Marvel movies or like Star Wars. They’re not for everybody. They have a very strong point of view. And I’m so gratified that somebody likes them. I love them.”
Araki’s lack of interest in commercial success makes him an authentic filmmaker who creates what they want to make and doesn’t aim to appease anyone else.
Due to his singular, typically R-rated vision, Araki also doesn’t want his parents to watch his movies. He explained, “I specifically tell my parents, ‘Do not come see my movies. They’re not made for you, and it makes me uncomfortable, the idea of you watching them.’ I love my parents, who’re so supportive of me, but I can’t make a movie thinking, ‘Oh my God, my mom is going to watch this.’ I’m an artist expressing all of the stuff in my head, and a lot of it is not suitable for my mom.”
