Kaboom 2010

Tom Long, Detroit News: What's going on? Who cares? Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This isn't satire, it isn't that funny and the only bits that work are the titillating ones. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: [A] chaotic, trifling, oddly likable film. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: It's as if Araki simply decided to make the horniest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ever. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Kaboom might be borderline camp, but there's no spillover. Or perhaps it's the other way around. Perhaps Araki's vision of human sexuality is so fluid that the borders are always expanding. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: An aching melodrama that turns the lingering pains of youth into paranormal puzzles that the hero keeps trying to solve. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "Kaboom'' is currently having all the sex other American comedies are too shy and too commercial for. Read more

Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times: The fact that the characters spout snappy, profane dialogue while all this is, or isn't, going on around them is more "fun" than fun; Araki's like the too-drunk guy who won't go home when the party's over. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Writer-director Gregg Araki makes an unwelcome return to the facile sexual-outlaw posing of his '90s movies. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Designed to have its own fun, filled to the brim with bangs of all kinds but mostly landing with a whimper. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: All that's truly strange here though is that Araki gets so few jolts or laughs from this hodge-podge of genres. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Araki lets his absurdist imagination run wild, and "Kaboom" takes the time-honored gambit of gradually revealing that nothing is as it seems to delightfully cockamamie extremes. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: With Kaboom, Araki takes a huge step backward from the maturity and restraint he demonstrated in 2004's Mysterious Skin, his best and most-assured film to date (and, tellingly, his only adaptation of someone else's material). Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: The film is so disjointed and chaotic that the usual pleasures of Araki's films-which arise from the freedom that his lost boys enjoy-never take hold. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: "Kaboom" is a return to Araki's frivolous past -- fun to watch but mostly forgettable. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Araki has been making movies for more than 20 years now, and his ideas haven't evolved all that much. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Sexy, dark, occasionally funny, good performances--but it's just too stupid to recommend. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie has been cast, designed, clothed, scored and edited to the bleeding edge of hip, but it hasn't exactly been written. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Kaboom is an erotic blast of sinful flesh, fun and fantasy that you don't want to stop. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A delirious and lighthearted pop spectacle with a dark undercurrent of apocalyptic horror, "Kaboom" is about 95 percent of the movie that writer-director Gregg Araki's fans have been waiting for. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Much of the film seems to make no sense, and when all is finally resolved, it feels arbitrary and pointless. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Araki deserves credit for maintaining his independent spirit. But "Kaboom" is short on impact. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: What pop spectacle! Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: If there's an undercurrent of impending cataclysm in today's culture, 'Kaboom' senses that feeling, seizes it in a surreal clinch and hurtles with it off a cliff. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: The film is Araki's most ambitious to date, with a quick pace, music that's hip and cool and a mood that alternates between playful and eccentric. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: [Araki's] assembled the best-looking cast in town and it's largely his gaga appreciation that makes the movie so much fun. Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: Sort of likable, despite Araki's utter lack of interest in charming anyone who isn't already a member of his small following. Read more