Unfortunately, whatever good intentions Clark might have brought to this project have been negated by his urge to wallow in an elegiac prurience about what never was. Like the critics, Clark wants to have it both ways, although one must ask just what sort of mentality is at stake in an individual who can treat gangbangs as a mere rite of passage without any sense of commiseration for doing so. Telly and Casper are two examples of this type and Clark, through his depiction of them, is asking the audience to admire their prowess while being horrified at the power of destruction they possess. There may be others like them, it's true, but the film seems to suggest that, given these children's penchant for self-destructive behavior, they're all destined to go the same route. If Kids has any redeeming feature, it is the manner in which it asks if societies should have a group of throwaway people, but the audience can come to that extremely relevant question only after cutting through the prurience with a machete, and the film doesn't provide any sort of thematic justification for exerting much effort on its behalf.
Kids also has other problems.
The audience can't care about the fates of these characters merely because, for all of their nastiness, they are quite simply and pathetically boring. Renting those films, instead of wasting money on this insidious and dishonest mess, would be a much more fruitful endeavor. Inc. All Rights Reserved.