Product: Kids (1995)
Rating: 3.0
Disturbing but lacks depth
As a teen, my life was very sheltered, but I knew people who lived like this. I went to school with them, I was friends with a few of them.For me this wasn't really a drama, but more a horror film, with the AIDS virus as Freddie Kruguer. Although it isn't meant to be a "race against the clock," for me, that's how it ended. I was left very disturbed, but only because this movie shows plain as day how simple the AIDS virus is passed around. I was always horrifed when I'd meet girls or guys who had sex with multiple partners, or who lost their virginity to people they hardly even knew. I wondered how they could do such a thing, but the fact of the matter is teenagers think they are invincible, and as disturbing as the film is, I think teens need to see this movie for that very reason. Some of the more for gone kids won't get it and will become fixated on the debauchery, but teens who were like me, or teens who had been followers rather than leaders, or teens who were just uneducated, but sensible with get this movie and may alter their lifestyle.This movie is also important because most films show sex, but not the consequences of it. Part of the reason why teenagers think its OK to have lots of sex is the image Hollywood and television and music present of sex. The casual attitude towards sex is really a leftover from the "Sexual Revolution" and "free love" of the '60s, before things like HIV were running around threatening to ruin your entire life. The problem is, Hollywood still promotes the pre-AIDS view about casual sex. And since most young people interpret TV as reality they aren't thinking about getting AIDS.Now while I think this film is important, it still is flawed. The beatdown of the guy in the park was unrealistic, the scene with the man with no legs was out of place and the whole movie left me screaming "Where are the parents?" It lacks depth. You're left with a lot more questions than answers, which may be the purpose. I think another movie like this needs to be made, but it needs to have more depth. This was a cinema verite-style movie, meant for the viewer to interpret that what he or she is viewing is real and really happening, and it does feel that way. I don't necessarily want to see a more "Hollywood" glossy version, but I'd like to see something similar with a plot and some parents so we can learn how these miscreants got this way in the first place.And they really should have explored Ruby's character more. I went to high school with a girl just like her, but I know why she was that way. I think the viewers would have liked to know why most of the characters in kids were the way they were.