Product: Kids (1995)
Rating: 2.0
The "Kids" Aren't Alright
"And all the vampires walking through the Valley/Move west down Ventura Boulevard. -- Tom Petty, "Free Falling"Move Tom Petty's "Free Falling" from Los Angeles to New York and you get the movie "Kids", an occasionally shocking but ultimately uninteresting look at a twenty-four hour period in the lives of the new Lost Generation, a glimpse of humans (only in the strict species sense) who have no ambitions or goals drifting aimlessly from one location to the next in search of satisfaction of their most basic animal needs.Leo Fitzpatrick plays Telly, an adolescent "Decameron" and self-described "virgin surgeon" whose whole life revolves around the deflowering of young girls. "Take that away from me," he confides in one voice-over, "and I really got nothing." He relates his latest conquest (brutally filmed in the movie's opening) to his best friend Casper (Justin Pierce), then, after shoplifting some beer and stopping by a flophouse crammed full of boys and drugs, he reveals his latest plan: he has set his sights on a thirteen-year-old girl named Darcy, and wants to make his conquest that night. "Two virgins in one day?" Casper says. "That's gotta be illegal or something." (Well, yes, it is, though not in quite the way he thinks.) Meanwhile, Jenny (played by Chloe Sevigny) has just discovered that she has contracted HIV from her single encounter with Telly, and spends the movie trying to find him to give him the news. (A caveat: if Telly is only interested in virgins, then how did he contract HIV? Never mind, I don't want to know.)It's grim stuff, made even less comfortable by Larry Clark's direction. Clark shoots everything with such gritty realism that the picture takes on a documentary feel. And it's effective; we feel the heat of the day, the sweat on the bodies, the texture of the grimy city, and the result is sensory overload. That the cast is made up of unknowns who try not to remind us that this is only a movie contributes to the effect. It manages to shock even the most jaded moviegoer. At first.That first twenty minutes is shocking, indeed. We see the deflowering of a young girl, theft, and drug use, we hear frank talk about sex from both boys and girls, we feel the vaccuum that has sucked all vitality and humanity from their lives. Unfortunately, in time the shock wears off, and it becomes obvious that Clark and Korine haven't bothered to present us with interesting characters. We want a reason to care about what happens, but we never do, because screenwriter Harmony Korine has failed to present anybody with an inner life. Aside from some vague pity for Jenny and loathing for Telly, we never feel anything but our own revulsion. Perhaps the point Korine is trying to make is that these kids have nothing to look forward to and nothing to hold onto, but that does not make for good drama. Or any drama at all.Clark and Korine continue to provide us with shocking images--more drug use, casual violence, crude attempts at symbolism (at one point Telly sucks red Kool-Aid from a tampon), compulsive partying--in a rather desperate attempt to hide their lack of a compelling story. The shock thus becomes exploitative and sensational, much like the set pieces and special effects of a typical Hollywood movie. The effect is less genuine realism than hip nihilism.Problematic, too, is the absence of any discussion of the issues raised. This is especially frustrating, for this is a movie which should spark debate. We see this movie and ask questions: how did these young people devolve into this cultural catatonia? What were the causes? What can be done about it? Casper, at the end of the movie, dozes naked in a living crowded with other partiers, then wakes and asks, "What happened?" It's exactly the question we're asking, but no answer is forthcoming. Again, maybe Korine and Clark feel there are no solutions, but if that's the case my question becomes, "What's the point?"While watching "Kids" I was reminded of "Fresh", another powerful look at contemporary urban life and its effect on the young. Both unflinchingly tackle the theme of inner city despair, but "Fresh" also managed to present us with characters who had hopes and dreams; despite an environment of random cruelty and parental apathy, they were still recognizably human, and they made us care. "Kids", despite its aggressive stance and catalogue of unpleasant behavior, has nothing more to offer than its own bleak outlook. It is as empty shell; strip it of its shock elements, one finds nothing of import and little of consequence. In the words of Telly, "Take that away from me and I really got nothing."