For having the courage to make a film like this, Clark might be one of the bravest souls of cinema out there. In one scene towards the end, Casper abandons all human decency so that he may carry out the deed of raping Jennie, once she's showed up at the house party. The kids of "Kids" are drug abusers, heavy and casual drinkers, and don't regard sex as passion or a showcase of affection but more-so a hobby and for Telly, a reason to exist. Because those aren't real depictions of what these people may be like. The real-life kinds of kids that the film highlights don't have the sort of morality that the kids you see in most Hollywood productions do. People want a clear reason for why the filmmakers are showing things that most films don't although this time, there simply is no reason other than for the sake of realism.īut that is what makes "Kids" so darn effective. It's not even a narrative it feels almost documentary-like in its close observation of these kids and their activities. Yes, there is "graphic" sex and plenty of drug use and yes, the screenwriter Harmony Korine (who has a cameo as a character named Fidget and wrote the film at the age of 18) and director Larry Clark have not made an attempt to give the film a moral center. It's as if the film's critics were trying to ignore the fact that it is by far one of the most realistic and uncompromising cinematic representations of today's youth. After doing research into the controversies surrounding it, I can only derive from the criticisms a strong sense of denial. The film was very controversial at the time of its release. She consults the possibility of death as she makes it across and about the city by foot and by taxi, eventually arriving at the scene of the crime a house party. She spends a lot of the film looking for Telly after she gets the results back hoping that she can savor his next victim from the horrors that she will no doubt be facing very soon. The girl's name is Jennie (Chloe Sevigny).
It's basically a day in the life of a few inner-city teens within the skateboard-punk circle particularly Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), a sixteen year old male whose life goal is to deflower at least one new virgin a day, his friend Casper (Justin Pierce), and a girl who Telly had sex with a while back and had recently been tested positive for HIV/AIDS. The side to it that most movies wouldn't dare to touch upon.
"Kids" is a movie about the generation of "now". I can't hide the fact that I find these people fucking repulsive. I look at people my own age and I see partiers, grade-school alcoholics, junkies, some are even criminals by now. It honestly makes me sad to think of this for I'm a part of a generation that is often criticized by the ones before it for its blatant ignorance. Everyone is so anxious to grow up or whatever the masses have convinced them is the equivalent of doing so.
We used to think these kinds of things were reserved exclusively for mature adults. Young people are starting drinking, smoking, and fucking (not necessarily in that order) at a younger age. They see nothing but kids abandoning dignity, self-respect, and innocence in the place of those three things, there is instead sex, drugs, and alcohol. Older generations look down upon the current one in disgust.