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Review: Kaboom

Less a boom than a whimper
By PETER KEOUGH  |  March 2, 2011
2.0 2.0 Stars

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.

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  Topics: Reviews , Haley Bennett, lesbian, Thomas Dekker,  More more >
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