Totally F***ed Up. F***ed up Edition [DVD]

Friendship, Sex, drugs and love....a real, unfiltered look at Gay youth in the 90's. This absolutely killed me it was just so amazing. If you've never seen a Gregg Arakki film this might be a new experience for you but his movies are just art. This tells a real story. The ups and downs of being Gay in the 90's. Gregg is able to portray Gay life and youth so brilliantly. If you've ever felt like an outsider or you grew up in that decade this might appeal to you. It just felt real...raw. It didn't try to be something that it wasn't. Literally following teens around, exploring the ups and downs of growing up Gay/Lesbian...dealing with sex, love, heartbreak and of course friendships. The initimate scenes felt very real, they didn't seem forced. James Duval and Alan Boyce had amazing chemistry in their scenes together. I loved it. This movie felt like a real story and according to the commentary, some of it was.

great film mockumentery of lgbt issues of the 90s

Quickly delivered and in a perfect condition BUT the film was just not my thing (I blame myself for my dislike rather than the director or actors who all did a good job (though the film was deliberately difficult to watch or view)). Seeing drug and over-drink taking inevitably breeds no education or understanding of WHY people do such things BUT it does show that we are meant to tread on the right side of the line that distinguihshes what is good and bad for the human being.

the title says it all really

Although Gregg Araki is a film director and producer whose work in alternative (mostly gay-related) cinema I cherish, I really cannot say that "Totally F(uck)ed up", from 1993, is among my favourite films of his, whether as the first part of his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy", or amidst his wider body of work, or among the works of other directors and producers, either. The DVD edition viewed was a North American one (Peccadillo Pictures PPD-227). For all my quibbles, "Totally F(uck)ed up" does have its charms and a certain magic to it, if one be patient enough to untangle the strands, or at least some of them, that comprise the tangle of gay relationships unfurling within the film. They seem pretty much pell-mell, leaping back and forth from one thing to another.For me, the most arresting to one's attention among the pairs of gay boyfriends and "hook-ups" in the film is that of Andy and Ian, played, respectively, by James Duval (looking quite different here as than he had as sweet but dopey character, Jordan White, in "The Doom Generation", part 2 of Araki's trilogy) and Alan Boyce. They are surely the best-looking young dudes in the movie, as well, and their gay relationship generates a lot of romantic and sexual heat, although there is little bare skin visible in their scenes together (and only two quick glimpses of full frontal male nudity in the entire film, so far as I noticed). Their love gives some temporary meaning to Andy's life. When Ian disappoints him and the two fail to connect by telephone at a critical moment when Andy, who has found little worth in living apart from this relationship, goes into deep anguish and commits suicide, the viewer really cares (or should do so) about the fate of these two young men. Fixing one's attention on their scenes (the most enjoyable and sexy in the film, anyway) can make some narrative sense of at least their parts of the movie, then, on reviewing, the rest, the action and the other characters, falls more easily into place.I purchased "Totally F(uck)ed up" in order to complete the trilogy, of which this film is the least satisfactory segment. However, once I got my bearings in the confusing mish-mash of "Totally F(uck)ed up", I really did come to enjoy it.

Sheer rubbish. Give your money to charity.and save time and energy.

"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!