Directed by Gregg Araki
84 minutes
In English 

The feisty director Gregg Araki knocked out this cinematic poem of a doomed generation back in the '90s, and it helped spearhead an Indie movement known as the “New Queer Cinema". This was his third feature film, but it was with this one things started to really take off. Maybe it was just that he was angry at the way things were, but in any case he let loose and started a fire that continued well into the next century. 

The story follows two young men who meet and strike a connection. When one of them tells the other that he is HIV-positive, his new friend simply welcomes him to the club. They go off on a road trip together, and since they are both facing death, a bond is forged based on their common destinies... they decide to entwine their fates together, forever. Along the way through the American landscape they across paths with lesbian outlaws, heterosexual oddballs, anti-queer cops, and a few very very queer outsider gays. 

This was one of the very first American movies to channel a righteous anger against the near-genocide of a generation of gay men in the 1980s. You can see how cruel our society is when a specific group of people are suddenly targeted with genocide, and almost everyone who isn't in that group just doesn't care much. But on the other hand, part of the film's boldness is how it takes such a serious topic, and  blasts it away with black humor—while being deeply romantic at the same time. It has a kind of Bonnie and Clyde attitude, but also captures the state of America in the '90s when most of the population couldn't care less about anything outside of consumer culture. Most people didn't bat an eye about the violence they were doing to others in Latin America, or to the queer community in their own country. But as we can see, there's also a kind of freedom in not fitting into the herd… it allows our main characters to let go on their own unpredictable journey. 

And once again, as with all of Araki's cinematic trips, there is a wild soundtrack of diverse indie musicians, including Coil & Psychic TV. Today this flick is considered to be a cornerstone of LGBTG2S+ cinema. It stars Mike Dytri, Craig Gilmore, Mark Finch, Mary Woronov and performance artist Johanna Went.