Click on image for trailer.
Kids was written by sixteen year old Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark in 1995. The film surrounds urban teenagers in their everyday lives over the summer. It stars Leo Fitzpatrick, Chloe Sevigny, Justin Pierce, and Rosario Dawson, all unknown actors at the time. The film was shot on a low budget and filmed using no staged sets.
I have watched this film several times and with many different people. Every time I showed it to someone, I think they walked away thinking I was a little crazy for liking it. The first time I watched this film, I remember covering my mouth several times and clenching my fists and shouting at the screen. No, it's not exactly action-packed, but rather extremely moving. The characters make several life-changing decisions, basically always for the worst.
The film starred Tilly, a teenage boy out on the prowl to pop the cherries of as many virgins as he can get. Jennie, a girl who had lost her virginity to him, goes to a health clinic to keep her friend company who is getting tested for STDs. Jennie takes the test just to comfort her friend so that she's not the only one. But then Jennie shockingly discovers she has the HIV virus and we see her on her journey trying to find Telly to let him know that he has it. (Beware: Spoilers about) Before she can get to him, however, we see him with not one, but two young girls and it's heartbreaking knowing that these young girls have now contracted HIV. When Jennie finally finds Telly he is at a party having sex with a girl. Jennie has given drugs that knock her unconscious and she is then raped, which is where the film ends. Tragic.
This film is intensely gripping, touching, sad, yet incredibly real. I found this film to be very characteristic of independent films. The themes of the film especially; kids having sex and partying. I don't imagine a film like this could ever possibly be made in Hollywood. It is too risky of a subject. I found the film's raw and harsh dialogue to also be very independent-esque. The kids swear consistently, and use words like "fuck" and "pussy" more than I care to hear. The film was also shot hand-held a lot, which gave it more realism. I do love this film though for its honesty of the way city kids often talk and for the portrayal of urban kids' lives. I don't necessarily think that every big city kid is like this, but I think parents would be surprised at just how real this film is.
I think this interview with the writer Harmony Korine is hilarious and is a good prologue to the film.
2 comments:
wow.. i think really the most impressive part of it all is that he is only 19. it would make sense that a movie about such things would be writen best by someone as young as possible but it just doesn't happen very often. Props to him
Harmony Korine's interview with David Letterman is a perfect example of what he is trying to do with his film. Usually people go on to Letterman and tell some lame story about their lives and how much fun they had making the film they star in and how great it is. Kind of the Hollywood way of things, fake and usually untruthful, putting on a smile that is so sickly PC you want to rip it off their face. Korine creates curiosity, people are interested in different, they think wow this kid is only 19 and he is so wierd. But the thing is he's probably anything but, and just as normal, even more normal, than most of the people that are guests on late night. Korine is a director with a style and a personality, and he is not going to change that because of some press junket that is in his distributing contract. Like his film he sticks with what he believes in, telling everyone else to fuck off because it is his film and his depiction of life. He tells it like it is even if it is a little out of the ordinary. It's really refreshing to see though.
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