Kaboom

This seems to be my week for paranoid thrillers, but Kaboom offer as a unique hybrid: it's a college sex comedy combined with an apocalyptic science-fiction story. It doesn't entirely succeed, but at least its approach is fresh.

The story centers on Smith (Thomas Dekker), a college freshman whose sexuality is "undeclared." He lusts after his surfer roommate (Chris Zylka), but falls into a no-strings-attached relationship with London (Juno Temple). His best friend (Haley Bennett) is an acerbic lesbian who has just established a relationship with Roxane Mesquida, who unfortunately turns out to be a witch.

Dekker is haunted by a particular dream, and then has what may or may not be a hallucination involving a red-haired girl and a trio of men in animal masks. This leads him to finding the truth about his father, who he thought died in a car crash, but instead is tied to a sinister cult who is bent on destroying the world.

Araki creates a nice pansexual world, full of all sorts of pairings. But the plot becomes more and more contrived. By the end it seems like a sci-fi story scribbled by a twelve-year-old in a composition book. I have the feeling this was what Araki intended, as the coincidences pile up (no character is incidental--they are either part of the cult or secret agents intended to foil it). The film doesn't so much end as stop; perhaps Araki ran out of money.

Still, I admired Kaboom for its perky sexuality (Temple, in particular, makes a great nymph) and has some clever dialogue.