Product: Kids (1995)
Rating: 4.0
Fady Ghaly's reviews
Following the film's grubby and ever so heartless prologue enough to already have great impact among a viewer and have him think twice as to whether or not he shall continue watching it, there is a scene where Telly, the film's leading character, who is approximately sixteen-years-old, is walking along the streets of New York City with his alcohol-dependent friend, Casper, who he is narrating to with regards to his latest sexual subjugation, which we have just witnessed in callous detail. Casper is gulping beer from a bottle, which he has likely stolen from a convenience store, for you later see him stealing a fresh one out of the fridge, ever so casually mind you, like he wasn't breaking any rules. Telly's language is like a string of hideous blows; he articulates about his exuberance for "de-virginizing" young girls, Casper cheers him on, and it becomes perfectly clear that neither one of them has any state of curiosity, any esteem, frame of consultation, beyond instantaneous animal regalement.Then a peculiar thing occurs. Casper respites casually, in plain view of a passerby on a street corner, to urinate. That is not what is so odd. What is odd is that Telly opts to stand around the corner from his friend, to grant him some privacy. If you scrutinize this body language, you comprehend that these kids live entirely in a world of their own. Other people-adults-simply do not exist, which is a reason large enough to baffle many as to the location this film was made in, for the camera, like the characters, sees merely this deplorable youth culture. Director Larry Clark's Kids is a film regarding their world, seeing everything as they see it-being the reason you scarcely get to really see Manhattan, let alone ever seeing it in full view. It is twenty-four-excessively-agitated-hours in the lives of these kids through one simmering summer day and night during which they travel Manhattan on skateboards and subway trains, shoplift, drink, use drugs, chat about and have sex, party like there's no tomorrow, involve themselves into fights so aggressive they're pestilent, and crash in an accustomed stupor, before beginning all over again the following day.It's clear to us that most of these kids are likely to not make it out alive past a period of their age when others would be worrying about their future careers-if they were to not already be locked behind bars-and it isn't like they have a future to look up for, anyway, nor does anything else interest them in life than doing all of the mutinous things you see them doing here, which merely has them reach an even earlier death. Telly, on the other hand, at least has an interest-or more of a hobby-: Sex. "When you're young, not much matters. When you find something that you care about, then that's all you got. When you're young, a lot of time (...) is all you have. When you go to sleep at night, you dream of (...). When you wake up, it's the same thing. It's in your face, in your dreams; you can't escape it. Sometimes, when you're young, the only place to go is inside. That's just it. (...) is what I love. Take that away from me, and I really got nothin'," Telly tells us. His face is a frightening contemplation in self-absorption as he tells girls lies others would laugh at."What if I get pregnant," gravely asks a girl, who is likely to be fourteen-years-old."If you (...) me, you don't have to worry about that," Telly assures her."Why not?" she asks."Because I love you. Because I think you're beautiful." But of course we know that those are merely words he uses in an effort for sexual fulfillment, for we, moments later, after she actually believes him and his mission is complete, is back on the streets with Casper, and then was when his true personality was revealed, which of course isn't at all the compassionate and caring one he made it out to be. Aside from his looks, which weren't much to look at but I guess he's quite successful in compelling the curious, his voice itself was so very rustic and abrasive; everything he says sounds deleterious. Leo Fitzpatrick doesn't fail to portray this character in whom Larry Clark obviously wanted to use as one who would be every parent's nightmare, and yet there are so many others just like him that it's not even funny. (I should know. I once had friends that related to him in every aspect.) I feel sorry for the moms and dads of our generation; they have no idea of how malicious kids can be nowadays, of how different the world has become to the good old days of Jerry Lee Lewis and The Great Elvis Presley, for most still dwell upon them.The film sees this culture in such flat, unblinking detail, with dialogue so authentic in the world of today, for it was written by a nineteen-year-old whose life was once similar to theirs, that you will develop the sensation that you were watching a documentary! With breathtaking images from one of the world's most renowned photographers, Kids is an affecting, no-holds-back landscape of words and language, protracting with raw sincerity and experiences, attitudes and perplexities of innocence lost. Kids, as critics have called it, is "a wake-up call to the world." "A masterwork."