Aging enfant terrible that he is, out-there auteur Gregg Araki has long fostered a reputation for being prickly — the diplomat’s translation for “self-regarding asshole of the first rank” — but the genial good humor of his last two features suggested he might be thawing a little. Certainly, his new film “Kaboom,” a froot-loopy but frequently delightful stoner fantasy that premiered at Cannes in May, appeared to be work of an artist whose tongue had settled pretty much irretractably in cheek. (I reviewed the film in capsule form here.)
Alas, appearances have proved deceptive, and Araki is still taking himself as seriously as ever. For evidence, look no further than the unpleasant little flap caused when the director, in a singular display of sourness, withdrew his film from the UK’s much-loved genre film festival FrightFest, where it had been afforded a prominent gala screening. His reason? He didn’t want the film seen by a “bunch of geeks.”
Even allowing for the stretchiest of “words taken out of context” excuses, Araki’s response is not only unnecessarily hostile but bafflingly self-defeating.
Apologies for yesterday’s scarcity of Cannes updates: a bumper day of back-to-back screenings cut unavoidably into my writing time, particularly as