Derek Roark I found this film through Juno Temple who has almost always picked good roles in my opinion. Upon seeing that this shared a director with Mysterious Skin (2004) I was even more excited to watch this. In the end I was pretty disappointed in the film though it had its moments.From the outset the film has somewhat of a dreamlike feel to it with all of the colors saturated to a point fitting of a fantasy sequence. The story is equally strange and seems to exist slightly outside of what is real. I felt that the film jumping around seemed to add to this (as well as descriptive names such as London speaking with a British accent and the few instances of supernatural abilities.) While it certainly wasn't totally incoherent it would jump from drama and the main character trying to find answers to a totally random sex scene that seems to come from nowhere and does nothing to advance the story.By far the most disappointing and bizarre piece of the film is the ending. It makes an attempt at tying all of the different stories together but in doing so directly contradicts at least one character's story. It comes off so intensely far-fetched that I wondered if maybe the movie all along is about a schizophrenic individual just imagining his reality.All in all it was pretty boring to watch with only a few dramatic, funny or visually interesting moments. I thought the sex scenes were okay and the mysterious parts were pretty good. It was just the erratic storyline and wacky ending that really ruined it for me.

FlashCallahan Smith's everyday life in college consists of: hanging out with his artsy, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, and lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor But it all gets turned upside-down after one fateful, terrifying night, when a reoccurring dream becomes a bleak reality, and he starts having visions of a dystopian nature.Araki movies are an acquired taste, you either get them and appreciate their beauty, or you get on the bandwagon of people who cannot stomach certain things and dismiss it as rubbish.Out of all the Araki movies, this has to be his most accessible, and it's very intriguing from beginning to end. The opening shot is very reminiscent of something that David Lynch would do, and the film does have a very Mulholland Drive feel about it.As his films do, it gets very bonkers toward the end, and you do have to suspend belief come the very end, but the film has such a cool laid back lizard feel to it, that you cannot help but get sucked in to his vision.Not all will appreciate his work, but I really enjoyed this.

Jacques Shepherd The Good: The style and direction is executed quite well. It's pretty impressive for an independent film and especially one of such R-rated material such as this.The acting is pretty good. Smith (Thomas Dekker) was pretty good as your average sexually confused teenager and the rest of the characters were all superb in their own ways.So strange it's engaging. This is definitely one of the strangest films I've ever seen. It's on Salvador Dali levels of surreality. But the strange turns the film takes are so strange they're engaging. It's like Tommy Wiseau's The Room, which is so bad it's fascinating. In this case however, it's the strangeness and sexual taboos that are so attractive about the film.The Bad: The ending was too rushed and was brought down to basic sci-fi ending levels and denominates the story to an unnecessary them or us stance. If the film had a more stranger ending and had explored a more intellectual stance on the world as we know it, then it would have been better.Some of the characters I thought were unnecessary. In fact all the characters other than Smith, Stella and London and the characters they have sexual contact with are unimportant and could've been removed.Final Score: 8/10 Great. If you're a fan of really surreal and coming of age films then this is for you. I actually think back on it and I find that I really enjoyed it. So strange it's awesome.

dominicdelaware When people start talking about a directors previous films as a supporting material for his current one, it's not a good sign. This film is poorly plotted and paced. The actors put in committed performances but the script is laughable. Never as edgy as it seems to think it is. The actors lines fall like lead balloons from their lips. I wasn't sure if Kaboom was intentionally aiming for so-bad-its-good fare, but it missed the mark on that score. I've seen this film called 'Donnie Darko meets Rules of Engagement'; in reality if it was just a little worse, it could have been a Sci-fi Showgirls - but instead of being truly bad, it's merely mediocre. Some great performances to be fair, but a bad film that isn't bad enough to be worth recommending.