Product: Kids (1995)
Rating: 4.0
Fady Ghaly's reviews
Following the film's grubby and heartless introduction enough to already have an impact upon a viewer and have him think twice as to whether or not he shall continue watching it, there is a scene where Telly, walking along the streets of New York City with his alcohol-dependent friend Casper, narrates to him 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. Telly's language is like strings of hideous blows; he articulates about his exuberance for "de-virginizing" young girls, Casper cheers him on, and it becomes 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 odd. What is odd is that Telly opts to stand around the corner from his friend, to grant him 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 lactation 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 see Manhattan. It is twenty-four-excessively-agitated-hours in the lives of these youths 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 in this film. Telly, on the other hand, at least has an interest (or more of a hobby): Sex. His face is a frightening contemplation in self-absorption as he tells girls lies they should laugh at. Being thickheaded, nave, or simply inquisitive, they listen to him, not aware of the consequences that come with such decisions, of Telly's true personality that is always revealed following the acting out upon his sexual fulfillment, which is not at all the compassionate and caring one it's made out to be. Aside from his looks, which weren't much to look at, yet I guess he's quite successful in compelling the curious, his voice was so very rustic and abrasive; everything he says sounds deleterious.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 familiar 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.