Product: Kids (1995)
Rating: 5.0
"When your young, nothing matters. When you find something you care about, that's all you got."
Kids is the story of unrestrained teenagers living in the grim atmosphere of poverty-stricken New York in the 90s and their empty, morally wayward lives. It's a controversial movie, featuring extremely graphic yet causal conversations about sex, ten-year olds taking drugs, brutal gang beats, and rape. Though there's naturally subplots, the movie can just as easily be taken as a whole, a film showing the character's typical routines and experiences.At the center of the story is Telly, a pale, gangly boy with a "addiction" for virgins and who enjoys the act of deflowering them. His friend is the vulgar Casper who is as sexually deviant as he is, and the two regularly socialize with drug-dealers, gangster skateboarders, and all-around degenerate losers. One of Telly's previous girls, Jenny, discovers she has acquired AIDS through Telly, and urgently sets out to find him before he passes the disease to other girls whom he may coerce into intercourse with. Telly and his clique have their own criminal adventures, climaxing at a wild, drug-laced party while Jenny searches the city with increasing hopelessness.This movie has some of the most realistic dialogue I've ever heard despite its explicitness, and nearly all the slang is up to date. The scenes of downtown New York, the interactions of the characters, and its sheer relentlessness create powerful, resonant feelings upon viewing. It's pessimistic, but you know that there really are unfortunate people like this, some made the way they are due to their terrible environments, others simply vile people whose situations augment their own corruption. It's just a great movie, and thankfully not so simply because it has a reputation.