I have always been a big fan of movies that give brutally honest depictions to parts of society that I am unfamiliar with. Larry Clark's Kids is definitely one of them, but it also has an added bonus of being twenty years old at the time of viewing, so it also gives an insight to a world that I can barely remember.
Taking place in Manhattan over the course of a day, the film follows 17 year old Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), who has an unsavoury habit of only sleeping with virgins. He spends most of his time with his pal Casper (Justin Pierce) as they wander aimlessly around town, looking to get high or laid. Meanwhile, Jennie (Chloë Sevigny) and Ruby (Rosario Dawson) both go to get tested for STD's. Jennie admits to only having sex once, with Telly, and finds out that she has contracted HIV.
After telling a friend that I had seen this movie and fallen in love with it, he told me how this film was very controversial upon release. This apparently had to do with the very frank depiction of the lives that the people in the film led and that no one (read: middle class white people) could believe that the youth of the early 90s would talk or behave in this manner. However, writer Harmony Korine has openly stated he had based this movie on a lot of what he had seen growing up in Manhattan. Indeed, the scene in which Casper brutally beats up a fellow youth with a skateboard was reportedly filmed only twenty feet from where Korine witnessed the bashing on which it was based.
And this film captures perfectly the outlook of society at this time. HIV was still a very worrying thing and there was a stigma attached to anyone who had contracted it, due to the heavily homophobic culture that existed. Many times in the movie, the characters come across some homosexual people and condemn them for just being themselves. But of course as we learn through the movie, anyone can contract HIV regardless of sexuality.
All the performances in this movie are amazing, especially considering it was many of the actors first movie. Leo Fitzpatrick's Telly is a reprehensible character who you come to realise isn't supposed to be likeable. Chloë Sevigny shot to fame after her performance in this movie and it was well deserved. Jennie is vulnerable in a world of guys who are out for her. Rosario Dawson made her debut as a fifteen year old and plays an amazing part and this movie would have benefitted from having a lot more of her in it.
Verdict: A great movie to have watched outside the time it came out, as it offers a brutally honest window into the time that it came out during.
And this film captures perfectly the outlook of society at this time. HIV was still a very worrying thing and there was a stigma attached to anyone who had contracted it, due to the heavily homophobic culture that existed. Many times in the movie, the characters come across some homosexual people and condemn them for just being themselves. But of course as we learn through the movie, anyone can contract HIV regardless of sexuality.All the performances in this movie are amazing, especially considering it was many of the actors first movie. Leo Fitzpatrick's Telly is a reprehensible character who you come to realise isn't supposed to be likeable. Chloë Sevigny shot to fame after her performance in this movie and it was well deserved. Jennie is vulnerable in a world of guys who are out for her. Rosario Dawson made her debut as a fifteen year old and plays an amazing part and this movie would have benefitted from having a lot more of her in it.
Verdict: A great movie to have watched outside the time it came out, as it offers a brutally honest window into the time that it came out during.
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