According to an essay written by Kimberly Yutani titled Gregg Araki and the Queer New Wave, Gregg Araki has been getting attention as the recent director of the number of films which are conveniently dubbed the Queer New Wave. One of Mr. Akari's best-known films is titled "Totally F***ed Up." It chronicles the lives of four gay, bored, disenfranchised adolescent males living in Los Angeles along with two young lesbians who form a kind of family unit and struggle to get along with each other, and in a broader sense, struggle to get along in a hostile society that openly discriminates against gay young men and young lesbians.
Araki produces some of the most interesting and most distinctive independent films. One of the things that distinguishes Akari's films from other independent films are that two of his most famous films were made on budgets and $5,000 and Araki did almost all of the work himself including financing, directing, filming, editing and writing.
According to Yutani, Mr. Araki's films represent the underrepresented in mainstream Hollywood movies. His characters are predominantly artists who are gay or lesbian or bisexual. Often, characters are alienated, depressed and filled with postmodern angst. This film in particular provided a voice for young gays and lesbians who somehow did not fit into the cultural stereotype of members of the gay community in America.
One of the criticisms that have been raised about films by Araki is the conspicuous absence of women in some of his films. Some critics argue that Araki is trying to marginalize women and make them seem inconsequential. Other movie critics would almost certainly respond that the absence of women and lesbians in Araki's films in key roles unfortunately replicates the problems in mainstream American society in which gender inequality exists to the extent that women are excluded from high paying jobs and from many positions of auth...