We’re already almost out of August, but we’ve got some choice titles to get through before the month ends! Our Stop Making Sense dance party returns this Friday, with guests encouraged to jump and dance along to Jonathan Demme’s groundbreaking concert film. Then join HorrorBuzz Saturday night for a one night-only screening of Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs, plus a preshow, trivia, and short film from HorrorBuzz’s Screaming Room Film Festival! Coming up next week is a double shot of sci-fi goodness with Hostile Dimensions, a new multiverse thriller by Graham Hughes, and Time Masters, Rene Laloux’s surreal 1982 film. Before that, however, we got The Doom Generation, Gregg Araki’s 1995 crime comedy!
Jordan White (James Duval) and Amy Blue (Rose McGowan) are two troubled teens who pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red (Jonathon Schaech). Their journey quickly devolves into a violent, surreal odyssey marked by bizarre encounters, escalating violence, and a series of darkly comedic and disturbing events. As they navigate through a nightmarish landscape, the trio grapples with their own disillusionment and the anarchic chaos surrounding them, reflecting the angst and nihilism of 1990s youth culture. The second installment of Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse trilogy, The Doom Generation has become one of the most beloved LGBTQ cult classics of the 1990s.
If you’ve never seen the film before, you can thank Alex Escalera, one of our two September Volunteers of the Month, for picking it! See what he likes about the movie as well as his time at The Frida below, and we’ll see you at The Doom Generation this week!
How did you find out about The Frida Cinema?
I remember I saw SpongeBob playing here – the first SpongeBob movie – and I was like “That looks so awesome, I need to take my friends to that.” So me and my friend went and it was just so cool and seemed so niche. I liked it so much that, the day afterwards, I applied to volunteer.
What made you want to volunteer here?
It just seemed super close and convenient for me. I needed a place to get my hours for school in and it looked so cool and chill to work here, and I thought “Hey, might as well.” I also just wanted a place to go to after school to hang out and this place seemed pretty cool to do it.
Tell us a little bit about The Doom Generation.
I have not seen it actually! I chose it because it’s one of Gregg Araki’s movies. I’ve seen Nowhere and The Living End from Gregg Araki and he’s just like my favorite director ever, like right now Nowhere is my favorite movie ever. I just like how he directs movies, it’s just amazing to me.
But also, like I said, I haven’t seen Doom Generation and I didn’t want to watch it on my phone. I really wanted to watch it on the big screen so that’s the main reason I chose it.
What were your other choices for Volunteer Pick of the Month?
One of my other choices was Chronicle. It’s a movie about these three teenagers and basically they get telekinetic powers. One of the kids is messed up and he uses his powers irresponsibly and it just goes into a whole chaotic direction. I like the way it’s filmed, I watched it when I was like 10 years old and they filmed it camcorder style like there was a camera and they were using their powers to move it around, so there’s a third person POV. I just really like the camerawork in that movie.
What is your favorite Frida memory?
If you could program any movie here, what would you pick?
The Doom Generation screens starting Friday, August 23rd.
Friday, Aug 23 – 10:30pm
Saturday, Aug 24 – 12:15pm, 10:30pm
Sunday, Aug 25 – 12:15pm
Tickets