Product: Kids (1995)
Rating: 3.0
A Brutally Realistic, but Shallow Slice of Life.
Kids is a simply produced film shot on hand-held held cameras to give an authentic documentary feel. Director Clark follows a number of New York city teenagers over a 24-hour period, focusing on Telly, his friend Casper, and Jennie. Telly's only purpose is to get high, drunk, and "de-virginize" as many girls as he can. As the film progresses, Jennie (one of Telly's victims) eventually learns that Telly has infected her with HIV. Clark effectively chronicles his characters recklessness and cruelty: They engage in substance abuse, theft, promiscuous sex, and near murderous violence. Clark's realistic direction is augmented by superb acting: Sevigny and Fitzpatrick in particular handle the difficult, often disturbing material with believability and aplomb. Stylistically, Clark has succeeded in creating a quazi-documentary that is as real as any fictional film can be.While the acting and style is excellent, on a whole Kids is superficial. Many lauded Clark for keeping the film a simple chronicle of his characters lives that offers no solutions or explanations. But Clark not only offers no answers, he offers little or no insight. Clark does a moderately effective job of holding the viewer's interest, but just doesn't make you feel much after or even during the film.Kids concludes with Casper regaining consciousness after a night of substance abuse and sexual assault, uttering, "What happened?". Kids is disatisfying because Clark never really tries to answer this question. He does show their abject environment, but this doesn't really provide any additional emotional depth. It would be a better film if Clark delved into his character's psyche in an attempt to offer some explanation for their behavior. Ultimately, Kids is an emotionally disturbing, but strangely unmemorable film that doesn't realize Clark's ambitions.