“Kids” follows a group of sexually active, drinking, weed smoking teenagers; connected through mutual first times and druggies, over a few days in a hot summer in New York city during the HIV period in the 1990’s.
The main characters are Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), Casper (Justin Pierce), Jennie (Chloe Sevigny), and Ruby (Rosario Dawson.)
The movie begins with a young girl undressed on a bed with a boy; Telly, seemingly a little older than her. He is trying to convince the girl to have sex. She eventually agrees, and after he comes down and meets his friend, Casper. They start walking, and have a very explicit conversation about the experience. We find out Telly’s main goal in life is to deflower virgins. Casper likes to shoplift. And both love to get high.
While watching the movie, the word that comes least to mind is beautiful, although looking back on it, and studying it like a work of art, it really is a “true to life” portrait of unbridled sexuality and freedom. This movie is extremely harsh, and it would be trash if it weren't done exactly right; these guys got it right.
It has been described as a wake up call; the film is centering on a particularly negative, bleak and depressing lifestyle; so this is really only a wake up call to all parents who call their children: Mama’s boy or Daddy’s little girl, falsely implying innocence. Most of us are aware of this disturbing fact of life, and the teenage state of mind and body, we just choose to stay away from it, or don’t know what to do about it. The makers of this movie, Harmony Korine and Larry Clark, chose to dive right into it, to show all sides of “kids”, even the truly horrifying ones. The soundtrack helps the very raw feel of the movie; uncut and real. It’s scary at times: because enough of certain drugs can make people brutally violent and pitiless. the movie is also a warning, in some ways to teenagers of every generation.
This isn’t just about teen rebel and angst, it’s also about fear and death. Ruby( Rosario Dawson) and her friend, Jennie go get tested for HIV, Jennie( Chloe Sevigny) is just keeping her company since she has only had one sexual encounter and Ruby’s had around 10. But Jennie tests positive. So for one of the main characters, life is over.
The film ends with Casper waking up, looking into the camera and saying: “Jesus Christ, what happened?”
A.
Lucy.
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