You could imagine from the intro that this could be a article about "broken Britain" in our modern time. However, this is the setting of the film Kids (1995) and is the product of underground director Larry Clark set within the 90's aids epidemic in New York City.
Clark takes a good hard look into the day of the young teens within the New York skate scene. Focusing upon the day in a life of the male and female leads Clark manages to shock the viewer as well as educate in a profound way.
Clark takes the young skater Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) and his once love interest Jennie (Chloe Sevigny) and uses the film to follow them for just one day and the effects of their lifestyle has on not only them but the world around them.
We see that Telly is actually a pleasant young man who likes to "deflower" underage girls as he likes to put it. Not worrying about the consequences of his actions, partaking in illegal drug use as well as attacking a man who "disses" his best friend.
It's Telly's involvement with Jennie where we see the start of the day in Clarks film and also the catalyst of the films story. We see that Jennie has infact contracted Aids after sleeping with Telly and embarks upon a trip around New York before he hurts anyone else.
Like many of Clarks later films, Bully (concentrating on the real life murder of a young teen) and Ken Park ( focusing on the lifes of a group of friends dealing with issues like child abuse and incest), Kids caused extreme controversy when released. A lot of media critics noted on the use of of the child actors partaking in near sex scenes calling it "borderline child pornography" and the ideas of underage sex and date rape. Others like Janet Maslin of the New York Times, however, described that Clarks work on Kids is more of "a wake up call to the modern world."
Clark, not unlike his photography work on dysfunctional families, bares all within this film. There's no happy times, no heroes, or any real excitement. The youths captured within this film wander around the city backdrop without any look of wanting. You can see that the activities they used to enjoy, Skating for example, have all been used up of any nourishment and are left used and abandoned as the virgins Telly was once so interested in, before he abandons and gleefully and unprecedently talks about to his friends.
Even though this film does deal with actions that the older generations at the time may have deemed unfit for viewing by ages 15 and under. Many young teens, myself included, counted this among their favourite films giving it a cult status.
As many started to realise when the sub cultures within this film were delved into that this was the life for these young teens of New York and by watching the film it could not only help to educate them on their lifestyle choices but also educate the older generations to be more in touch with the younger teens and stop the destructive behaviour before it began to take hold and ruin these young lifes.
The film helped to make me take a look at my own life and making sure that unlike the teens in these films I never felt like there was no place to go, that i always had a purpose and many others who count this among their favourite films felt this way.
The film didn't only generate media criticism but it also boosted many of its young stars into the limelight. For many this help to push their careers further, for example Jeff Pang the creator of clothing company Zoo York. Also the young Rosario Dawson can be seen playing Ruby, Jennies friend who accompanies her to the aids clinic is seen in parts of the film.
Unfortunately like many child stars the fame was too much for some and Jason Pierce, Telly's bestfriend Casper, was found dead at the age of 25 after committing suicide. Also Harold Hunter, a friend of Telly's, a professional skater died from a heart attack from a cocaine overdose at the age of 32.
Clark used the "day in a life" style in a intelligent way. It helps us to only see the harsh living times of the teens and the way that they live without taking breaks between the screenplay. It also helps us to really focus upon the actions of the young teens and to feel about the life that they lead.
This style helps us to really see the difference not only between the lives of Telly and Jennie but also of the girls and boys as we see in the contrasting scene of the opposite sexes in a discussion on oral sex.
The 24-hour day in a life style of filming has been reused in films within in modern times. British movies Kidulthood and it's sequel Adulthood used this style to great effect to document the lives of teens within the Inner City of London.
Even though this film does deal with ideas that many may not want to think of, it is a film that opens up the modern world of teenagers to the older generations. Even after ten years this film still shocks the viewer so much that the film still has merit in our youths era where much of the ideas first seen in this film can be explored in more detail.
1 comment:
SUCH AN AMAZING MOVIE
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