Director: Larry Clark
Year Released: 2001
Rating: 0.5
Photographer-turned-filmmaker Larry Clark turns to teen sexuality and violence once again, but this time the product is not enlightening but really awful, since he's working not with non-actors or a quasi-documentary approach but with glossy equipment and "real" (I use the term loosely) actors. The "bullyish" behavior of Nick Stahl (forcing it a bit) is equated with his latent homosexuality, the revenge tactics of the kids form because of video games ("Fatalize!"), Eminem, acid, pot, excessive free time and uber-naïve parents. The Stahl character, while perhaps being mean, doesn't deserve to die - didn't anyone ever hear of just not hanging out with/avoiding people like this? Clark seems too wrapped up in topless teenage boys and bottomless teenage girls to concern himself with getting good performances (the cast of Kids looks like the Steppenwolf Theater) or writing tolerable dialogue (fuck is 'the' word of choice, the one pot-head kid is in there to be laughed at), and his picture is amateurish sensationalism.
