Film

The Living End

Name: The Living End
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Released: 1992
Cast: Mike Dytri, Craig Gilmore, Mark Finch, Mary Woronov, Johanna Went

Crime

Gregg Araki's 1992 debut is punk-rock cinema at its most alive: two HIV-positive men, a critic and a hustler, careen across America in a stolen car, robbing and running, their love story inseparable from rage and mortality. It's sexually frank, formally inventive, and urgently present. Essential viewing about living under a death sentence.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like your road movies scruffy and furious, with punk-rock impatience and a defiant sense of humour about desire and danger.

Skip it if you need polished craft and a tidy plot; the lo-fi roughness, abrasive energy and deliberately confrontational sexuality may grate rather than thrill.

What it asks of you: Expect a brisk 85 minutes with a tone that lurches between bleak, tender and gleefully outrageous, so stay alert rather than settle in.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Querelle1982

Cornel West directs Adrien Brody as the queer writer-thief Jean Genet, exploring transgression, desire, and art-making with formal audacity and genuine eroticism. A meditation on the revolutionary power of refusing respectability.

But Very cerebral, deliberately obscure in places, and not interested in conventional narrative satisfaction. Long stretches play more like essay than drama.

My Own Private Idaho1991

Gus Van Sant's elegy for street life and male desire: two hustlers drift through Portland and Rome in search of connection. Genuinely moving, dreamy, and sexually honest in ways mainstream cinema wouldn't attempt for another decade.

But The plot is deliberately loose. Some find the pacing glacial, and there's a Shakespeare adaptation embedded inside that doesn't land for everyone.

Chasing Amy1997

Kevin Smith's sharp, funny exploration of desire, jealousy, and sexual identity through a love triangle between a cartoonist, his best friend, and a lesbian artist. Unafraid to let characters be messy and contradictory about sex and relationships.

But The dialogue is wordy and self-amused, dense with references. Some of Smith's gender politics haven't aged well, and the comic-book subplot clogs the emotional core.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Living End

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Wedding Banquet1993

Both are about queer men on the run from death and convention, but where The Living End is aggressive and nomadic, Wedding Banquet stays put and negotiates. Same wound, different response: one erupts, one domesticates.

Ang Lee's tragicomedy about a gay Taiwanese-American man who marries a woman to appease his parents, inviting chaos and unexpected tenderness. It's funny, touching, and uses family and cultural obligation to explore love, deception, and desire. A genuine crossover that never simplifies.

But The ending softens moral edges some will want kept sharp. The tone whips between comedy and drama, and some moments feel calculated. It's also become a bit canonical, which can dull first-time viewing.

Parting Glances1986

An early, achingly tender film about a gay couple in the early days of AIDS: one is sick, one is leaving for work abroad, and a day unfolds. Quiet and humanizing where much AIDS cinema was didactic. The Richard Gere cameo is strange and perfect.

But Almost nothing happens. It's a mood piece about ordinary people, which means long stretches of talk and waiting. Some will find it too small.

Go Fish1994

Rose Troche's black-and-white debut about lesbian friends in Chicago: funny, unpretentious, shot like a Douglas Sirk film but sounding like your friends talking at 3am. Community, desire, and survival without angst or apology.

But The grainy DV aesthetic is deliberate but unflattering. The episodic structure means no real climax, and some vignettes feel thin beside others.

Bound1996

The Wachowskis' debut thriller: a lesbian ex-con and a woman trapped in a mob-wife marriage plan a heist and fall in love. Visually stunning, erotically charged, smarter than it seems. Both the crime plot and the desire feel real.

But The supporting mob characters are cartoony, and the plot relies on coincidence. Some found it a stylish exercise without substance, though that misses the point.

Postcards from America1995

Steve McLean's formally radical adaptation of David Wojnarowicz's autobiographical essays: fragmented, hybrid, mixing performance, found footage, and talking-head monologue. A portrait of queer life, homelessness, and artistic survival that refuses easy narrative.

But The fragmentation is the point, but it means there's no plot to follow. Watching feels like overhearing a brilliant voice rather than entering a story. Not for passive viewing.

Trick1999

Jim Fall's sweet, funny film about two gay men who meet at a bar and spend the night trying to get back to one guy's apartment. A romantic comedy that treats gay desire and romance as completely normal and worth celebrating. Charming and unpretentious.

But The plot is paper-thin and the character development minimal. It's a movie about nothing much, deliberately, and that won't work if you want substance.

Claire of the Moon1992

Nicole Conn's earnest lesbian romance between a homophobic psychologist and a poet at a women's writing retreat. Unashamed about female desire and connection. It's sincere in ways that feel increasingly rare.

But The script is purple-prosed and the acting can be stiff. The politics are heavy-handed and the plot twists are soap-opera predictable. Kitsch has its charms, but this requires you to embrace the soapiness.

Kolya1996

Both films argue that love—romantic, parental, chosen—is the only sane response to chaos. But where The Living End is all fire and velocity, Kolya is quiet and domestic. Same argument about what makes life worth living, entirely different register.

Jan Svěrák's Czech film: a cynical cellist's life inverts when a boy appears and he discovers tenderness he didn't know he needed. Funny, strange, formally inventive, and genuinely about how love transforms you when you're not expecting it. Warmth that earns itself.

But It's in Czech with subtitles. The tonal shifts can feel sloppy. And after years of praise, some come to it expecting a masterpiece and find instead a very good, slightly messy film.

Sid and Nancy1986

Both are about lovers destroying themselves together, living recklessly because the world already considers them disposable. But where Araki's lovers are trying to survive and love in spite of everything, Sid and Nancy are explicitly self-destructive. Same trajectory, inverse morality.

Alex Cox's baroque punk fever dream about the Sex Pistols bassist and his girlfriend: heroin, violence, and a grotesque love story told in black-and-white with the texture of a nightmare. Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb are unforgettable. Formally reckless and genuinely transgressive.

But It's ugly, chaotic, and difficult to watch. The relationship is abusive and the film doesn't soften that. Some will find it exploitative. And the period references can overwhelm if you're not steeped in punk history.