In the late '80s and early '90s, the subversive "New Queer Cinema," with such filmmakers as Todd Haynes, Gus Van Sant, and Greg Araki, promised a vital gay sensibility in independent film. Since then, Haynes and Van Sant have been absorbed by the mainstream, and gay cinema has deteriorated into inane, lurid rom-coms. As for Araki, time has not been kind to his raw nihilism: after two decades, his apocalyptic obsessions have lost their urgency. In this glib farce, Smith (Thomas Dekker), an omni-sexual college freshman looking for a good time, uncovers instead a half-baked conspiracy with closer connections to himself than he imagined. The plot serves as a framework for such raunchy clichés as Thor (Chris Zylka), the hunky straight roommate Smith has a crush on, Stella (Haley Bennett), the acid-tongued lesbian best friend, and London (Juno Temple), the kooky free spirit who initiates Smith into a dreary world of softcore terrors and delights. Less a boom than a whimper.
