The Living End (Queer Film Classics)

Scuzzy, sexy, and driven by anger at the ongoing AIDS crisis, Gregg Araki’s The Living End follows the exploits of an HIV-positive couple, journalist Jon and hustler Luke, as they reject conformity and take to the road.A touchstone of New Queer Cinema, the movie crackles with defiance, capturing the blunt rage and vital passion of its historical moment. After two ultra-low-budget features, The Living End was a critical and commercial breakthrough for its director.Araki’s film rejected the activist call for positive images of homosexuality and challenged the representational politics associated with HIV/AIDS.Blending personal reflection with close formal analysis, Glyn Davis examines the film’s production history, the live and thorny topics with which it engaged, and its significance as an independent production.Peppered with witty and knowing references to other movies and marked by a bold, dynamic deployment of locations, colour, props, actors, and industrial and shoegaze music, The L