Kids (1995)
Rating – 2.5/4
**SPOILERS**
If the other reviews I’ve written are anything to go off of, I have a very broad taste in movies. I don’t tend to stick to any single genres, and instead choose to watch films based on reputation and legacy.
Kids’ reputation is one of the more complicated ones I’ve encountered, receiving both praise and contempt for its disturbing - yet horribly realistic and unfiltered - subject matter. It seems to exist in direct defiance of tastefulness, much like the characters it follows. Some find it to be a gratuitous and meaningless exercise in exploitation, while others find it to be a fascinatingly unflinching glimpse into an often overlooked subculture. It’s not an easy film to find, as it would seem no streaming service is willing to add it to their libraries, even to be rented. I simply had to see what all the fuss was about.
Kids was released in 1995, and was the debuts of director Larry Clark, screenwriter Harmony Korine, and actors Leo Fitzpatrick, Chloe Sevigny, and Rosario Dawson. It follows a day in the life of hedonistic teenagers in New York City, looking to deflower virgins, find drugs, and do as they please with no regard for the people around them, all at the height of the AIDS crisis. Korine wrote the script at the age of 18, wanting to reflect the behaviors and lives of real teens at the time, a dark and often cruel subculture bereft of basic morality (according to several reviews on Letterboxd, the depiction is unfortunately not exaggerated). This would naturally cause plenty of controversy, even leaving the film stricken with an NC-17 rating (worse than an R rating, for those of you who are uninformed).
It should go without saying that this film is not for the faint of heart. It is a constant barrage of sexual assault, drug use, homophobia, and all sorts of revolting acts carried out by kids barely in high school. Many of these scenes are made more unsettling by how graphic they are. There’s good reason as to why this isn’t an easy film to find. The main characters, Telly and Casper, are probably the most unlikeable characters I’ve seen in some time. They shoplift, berate a gay couple on the street, steal money from Telly’s mom, and frequently manipulate young girls into having sex with them before tossing them aside. They (and most of the friends they interact with) constantly act like the most irredeemable dirtbags possible without any remorse, which obviously only makes the film worse.
A lot of the criticism towards Kids comes from its exploitative nature with no real point to make. I find this to be true. The film doesn’t cast any obvious judgement on these kids, nor does it provide any commentary or message. It is only an opportunity to observe, and its detachment to the inhumanity it depicts rubs a lot of people the wrong way. There’s no on screen moral reckoning or major repercussions for Telly and Casper, no justice for their victims. So why do I not want to tear this movie apart?
I can’t say I enjoyed this movie. I completely see how people would hate this. But there is something to be said about the realism on display. The lack of clear narrative, answers, or morals may be unsettling, but it's been made to feel real, and it succeeds at that. Nothing is censored, everything’s laid out to see. Korine wrote the film to reflect the environment he knows well, that Hollywood wouldn’t get near. Fascinating feels like the wrong word to describe it, due to its revolting nature, and it’s certainly not entertaining. Regardless, it holds your attention, whether you want it to or not.
My best theory as to why Kids lingers in one’s mind comes down to its observational (rather than judgemental) nature. In doing nothing to comment on or rationalize its characters’ behavior, it invites you to do so yourself. Again, the frequent depictions of assault and mysogany are going to make this a hard watch for a lot of people, and trying to find something deeper in the sheer detachment of the film can be infuriating, if not emotionally strenuous.
However, I think Harmony Korine wrote some subtle clues into the script as to why these characters (and the people they’re presumably based off of) act the way they do. Most significantly, the vast majority of the characters in this film are adolescents. I think there are only a handful of adults with any actual lines in the film, and none of them witness the nastier actions characters like Telly partake in. These kids run around unsupervised, and no one reacts to their misogynistic language, drug use, or when they beat someone up in the street. Society constantly turns a blind eye to this behavior, even though Telly and Casper are almost constantly acting this way in earshot of people who could at least try to stop them. A lot of criticism towards the film is based on the film's refusal to condemn the boys’ actions, but by forcing the audience to witness it, it does more to address it than any source of societal authority. Telly and Casper’s actions are left to flourish in a lawless environment, and I sense that exposing both said environment and society’s lack of response to it is a major reason as to why Korine wrote this.
In spite of their repulsiveness, I find myself wanting to know more about what the future holds for Telly, Casper, and the other characters in the film. The film doesn’t expand much on their futures. The events of the film take place, but aren’t treated with any significance. Clark and Korine do include at least one hint towards a very bleak future however, by including a quick montage of homeless drug addicts in New York, aimlessly wandering the streets, immediately after a climatic party scene where the hedonism is dialled up to 11. It’s a small, somewhat nihilistic way of suggesting that this lifestyle won’t really lead Telly and Casper anywhere, and they may really be lost causes. This, paired with the youth of these characters and the lack of solutions, is what makes this a hard pill to swallow for most. However, perhaps the first step to solving the problem at hand is to acknowledge it.
It’s hard to recommend this movie. You will not have a good time. There are absolutely scenes that will be harder to watch for victims of Telly and Casper’s behavior, and to those people, you won’t gain anything from watching this. I think Korine intended for there to be a very select audience for Kids, and it’s those who would rather not acknowledge the reality it wants them to see. If you’re a person who wants to pretend this culture wasn’t (or still isn’t) real or not that bad, maybe you should track this down, and that’s really all there is to it.
