[4]

Queer cinema pioneer Gregg Araki (The Living End, Mysterious Skin) serves up a brightly colored teen sex comedy by way of Twin Peaks with a Dr. Strangelove finale. Like most of Araki’s films, there are nice scenes here and there, and a raw, primal quality to his storytelling that allows him to get away with lack of subtlety better than most filmmakers. But I’d like to have seen a stronger narrative through-line and better balance of tone. The first half of the movie is so irreverent, that by the time Araki tries to engage you in his high-stakes sci-fi mcguffin of a plot, you can’t care less. And Araki needs to seriously cut back on the number of dinner scenes he puts in a movie. Every third scene in Kaboom is two characters eating in a cafeteria. The cast is pretty good, though, and like most Araki casts, beautiful to look at. With Thomas Dekker, Juno Temple, and James Duvall.