The Doom Generation

Comedy

Amanda Bearse	Barmaid
Margaret Cho	Clerk's Wife
James Duval	Jordan White
Heidi Fleiss	Liquorstore Clerk
Christopher Knight	Male News Anchor
Rose McGowan	Amy Blue
Parker Posey	Brandi
Jonathan Schaech
Lauren Tewes	Female News Anchor
Johnathon Schaech	Xavier Red
Cress Williams	Peanut
Dwayne R. Goettel	Gang of Goons
Cevin Key	Gang of Goons
Nivek Ogre	Gang of Goons
Dustin Nguyen	Quickiemart Clerk

Director	Gregg Araki
Producer	Gregg Araki; Nicole Arbib; Andrea Sperling
Writer	Gregg Araki; James Duval

Made for a fraction of the cost of Oliver Stone's similarly themed Natural Born Killers, Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation is more persuasively outragous in its cultural satire, scarier in its violence, and more profound in its vision of a hate-fueled, media-drunk America seemingly determined to eat its young and dwell stupidly on their vengeance. Rose McGowan (Scream), James Duval (Nowhere), and Johnathon Schaech (That Thing You Do!) star as a trio of friends (Schaech's character actually being a complete stranger who steps into their car and into their lives one club-hopping night) who end up on a sex-and-crime spree that draws the fixed stare of television coverage. Araki makes a case for their continuing innocence in a society whose anti-outsider malevolence is barely disguised in the media but is quite naked out in the heartland, where a punishing level of bigotry is not unknown. Araki's jokes and techniques are crude yet forceful, and his anger is absolutely clear where Stone's was obscured and overreaching. The climax is among the most shattering and enraged scenes of '90s cinema. The DVD includes cast information, a theatrical trailer, and French and Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh