MUBI

Due to the controversy surrounding it, this is a film which received a boost in interest from non-film fans. Maybe I’m the only one who sees this trend, but films that appeal to non-film fans are then commonly dismissed by the aficionados, and “Kids” has become a victim of that. There are certainly a number of wrong reasons to enjoy this film, but there are just as many good reasons to enjoy it as well. “Kids” is off-beat grit at it’s finest, exploring foreign matters to typical art-house patrons. Similar to a modern day version of Bunuel’s “Los Olvidados,” this is an account of a group of young street punks living in the world’s most existential city, below the poverty line, with no interest in anything intellectual, and appear to have no redeeming qualities. There is nothing that the viewer wishes to connect himself to, however, the film forces the audience to see things from their level in order to tolerate the characters. I thought the cinematography was beautiful, and the naturalist style of acting and dialog are better than any film made after Cassavetes’ “Husbands.” Finally, it’s all surrounding one of the most notably dark and comfortless circumstances in the history of independent cinema. As an aspiring filmmaker, this film will always remind me to think outside of the general spectrum of where to look for inspiration, and to consider the aspects of life that people would otherwise associate nothing artistically beautiful with.

It was one of the first movies that left really big remark, I still remember my juniorschoolyears when i first time saw it, it was the time of rebelion and skateboarding, so this was the perfect movie. I watched it again few year later and just now, i will probabily always like this movie because of the sentimentality=) but the movie itself it’s quite good also, the story is authentic the roles are played convincengly (dont now the spelling of this word).This kids were really living sex, drugs and little less rock’n’roll but their story is’t so much story of success neither the story of cosmopolitan city youth. žž
It was also a debue movie for Rosario Dawsan and the director Larry Clark. I really like Clark because of his topics of the movies, which later were mostly similar, but this film still leaves deeper remark than Ken Park or Bully for me.
Kids will always be kids!

A lot of people give seem to give Larry Clark all the props for directing this film, but I think that it really boils down to the script, written by Harmony Korine (dir. of Gummo). Kids is an unabashed look into the lives of a group of teenagers and pre-teens during their everyday lives in the city. It’s summer time, the weather is hot, and kids all over town are bored, so what should we do? Consume copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, of course.

The pinnacle of this story concerns a teen named Telly; a boy who has a craving for having sex, primarily with virgins, since, “Nobody has the power to do that ever again.” Little does he know that he somehow, along the way, contracted the HIV (positive) virus, and thus spreading it all over town. We know right from the get-go that one unfortunate girl has been infected, followed by two more females before the end of the film, but Telly seems like a sex machine full of empty promises so it’s impossible to tell how many girls he must have fucked. Those poor girls, their first time engaging in a sexual experience leaves them scarred for life.

The rise of HIV in the nineties and young adolescents having intercourse is only some of the themes Harmony Korine touches upon. As we travel across town and to certain people’s apartments we dabble with drug abuse, teen pregnancy, date rape, homophobia, violence, and many other things that wold make your parents squirm. The kids are foul-mouthed, but as someone who was too young to understand what they were doing, but old enough to remember them and what they were doing, this film sort of resonates with me, in a nostalgic way.