After many long years of deliberation I've finally decided what my favourite film of all time is. This is not to be confused with what I think the best film ever is just my personally favourite. The film I am talking about is Kids by Larry Clark. I advise you to go and watch the film before reading this. It's an emotional story that will have you laughing then feeling disgusted and torn whether to love or hate a character along the way. With a unique and shocking story this film is hard to dislike. It can be viewed easily through many streaming websites and is even accessible on youtube.
Written by Harmony Korine the film documents the lives of young New York teenagers as they do drugs, skate, have sex and fight. The film's style was so realistic many of the its audience believed it to be a documentary. The shaky cam, natural acting and fantastic yet real dialogue made this so. A scene in particular when a group of girls and a group of boys talk separately about their sexual exploits, experiences and preferences. We see the stark contrast of viewpoints of the two genders and their emotional inexperience in sex simultaneously. Even considering this you find yourself smiling and laughing along with the dialogue as if you are watching a documentary and having your viewpoints discussed on the screen.
There is no real main character as the story jumps from its dependency of plot to and fro between characters. Telly, played by Leo Fitzpatrick we believe to be the main character at first, is caught up in his need to 'fuck virgins' it becomes an obsession for him and from the first scene we immediately dislike him. However it's hard not to be intrigued by him though as him and his friend Casper have some excellent dialogue between them. Casper played by Justin Pierce is Telly's closest friend as he follows him, but not a follower, as he continues his pursuit to devirginize girls. Telly proves to be a complex character even at such a young age and becomes very likeable. You see him being charitable yet a thief, you see him being thoughtful and cultured yet depraved and a bully. The story switches from these characters and Jennie, Chloe Sevigny. Jennie is an extremely sweet girl. In her young life she has only slept with one person, that being Telly. From this point on I am sure you assume that Telly is a Love em and Leave em kind've guy. Jennie isn't caught up on this, a bit pissed as any girl would after a year but not holding any real grudges. We like Jennie as she chats to her friends and accompanies her friend to the sex clinic as emotional support for her as she takes a HIV test.
Casper on the left,
Scumbag on the right.
The dialogue scene in which I mentioned earlier descends into a discussion about AIDS. Ruby, Jennie's friend, tells the girl group of her several sexual encounters and how a few of them went unprotected, hence the test. We flashback to when both girls get tested. They re-visit that clinic today to get their results. At the same time we hear Telly speak of his desire to 'fuck two virgins in one day' more specifically a young girl named Darcy. Him and Casper bet money and whether he will or not and so find their next adventure in the day. Meanwhile back in the clinic we hear the good news that Ruby is HIV negative and we breathe a sigh of relief but then we cut to Jennie, Jennie's innocent, young face as she is told she has contracted the HIV virus. But she has only been with one person she says and we cut to Telly.
This is when the narrative gets serious, no longer is about smoking weed and skateboarding but a race against time for Jennie to find Telly before he sleeps with Darcy. It dawns on the audience as we remember that it was mentioned that Telly and Jennie slept together over a year ago and we contemplate the damage that has been done to not only the young girl at the beginning of the film but the countless others that Telly has slept with.
The films tone changes heavily after this. Before we may have seen the exploits of these teenagers as harmless fun as they try to fight boredom the only way generation x can. We begin to feel disturbed and sick as these 'kids' are not adults, they are dealing with taboo topics that we assume only adults can emotionally deal with not 'kids'. They take these topics on however with a child's version of how an adult should.
Harmony Korine's cameo,
aged 22.
The best thing about this film is how it shows us how teenagers truly think. So many times as adults we think 'Kids today blah blah blah' forgetting that the same desires and vices we indulge in are the same as when we were kids but with a more emotional grounded perspective. It's not so much exposing the lifestyle of teenagers 'these days' kind've movie, more exposing the lifestyles we used to live. I also can't stress enough the greatness of the dialogue as well, some of the best in any film. Even on the level, and I don't say this lightly, with Tarantino. I'm not going to tell you the ending because I've already spoilt enough yet hopefully teased you the right amount you should go and watch it if you haven't already, because there is a lot more in it then what I've divulged to you.
