Watch The Living End For Free

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Absolutely Fantastic

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"The Living End" pretty much launched The New Queer Cinema and began a whole new era of gay indie filmmaking.Unapologetically in your face, the tale of two HIV-positive lovers on the run is rough, edgy and totally LA punk (if you've never lived in Los Angeles, you might not appreciate the unreal quality of the city and its residents as presented here... the film is not as surreal as you think).This film is Araki's most Godardian, but with a humor all his own.Significantly cleaned-up, the remastered version currently on DVD is worth buying, even if you still have an older DVD/VHS copy in your collection.The movie is a joy from start to finish.

A film I enjoyed far more than I 'should' have, given how many individual moments I disliked. Full of somewhat forced, wanna-be John Waters style humor that is sometimes funny, but often just over-arch and clunky. And some of the acting is weak, the rest only pretty good. Yet underneath it all there is something moving, honest and raw in its punky rage at the world from an HIV positive point of view. Sort of a gay, surrealist Thelma and Louise made on a shoestring. For all the moments I rolled my eyes, I feel like it will stick with me over time.

By chance, this movie caught my attention late-night and I was lucky enough to watch from start to finish. As much of a docudrama as it is a character study from the early gay nineties, some people may find this flick utter crap, or at the very least, sophomoric. To those people, I suggest sticking to "Eight Below" or anything starring Reese Witherspoon.As the viewer, I felt transported back to 1992, having been 25 years old at the time this movie was released with no idea it even existed. The somewhat surrealistic, exploratory journey between the two main characters brings back so many memories from a time where such strange pairings and outrageous actions seemed to occur regularly. Whether you grew up in Dallas, LA, or New York makes no difference; chances are you knew any one of the characters from this film in some aspect.At times overtly philosophical, others completely abstract, the exploration of two peoples' mental struggle with HIV was at least done from an unflinching perspective. This is a case study in human nature, no matter how uncomfortable the subject matter. It also proves that the nature of the beast hasn't changed and that HIV/AIDs still isn't really a priority of the U.S. government...at least, not in any beneficial way to those afflicted. Be sure to stick around for the final message in the film credits and see if you can tell if anything has changed in the last fifteen years.As a special treat, if you've ever been a fan of industrial/electronica from the Wax Trax! label (among others), you'll recognize some great stuff, from Chris and Cosey, Coil, KMFDM, and even Psychic TV.

I really love Araki's 'The Doom Generation' and 'Nowhere', but it's taken me some time to finally get around to watching this, his debut. Now seeing those other two first has probably ruined 'The Living End' for me, as I can't help but compare it to them, and it lacks the energy, pop culture saturation and surreal humour that appeals to me so much. 'The Living End' is more realistic and serious, and does what it does quite well for its obvious budget limitations, but I can't say I was all that impressed.Still Araki is a great talent, and went on to better things.Nice to see a cameo by the delicious Mary Woronov though!