Kids...

In bad cinema this week we watched the highly controversial Larry Clark film 'Kids'. I did know of this film before and had watched it a few years ago curious of its surrounding hype. Being as I was younger the first time I watched the film I don't believe I truly appreciated how shocking it was. Having now seen it as a more mature adult I can safely say it is extremely shocking viewing and also very uncomfortable to watch in many places. The film supposedly brings light to the sordid lives teenagers lead under their parents noses. Drugs, sex, alcohol, stealing, rape and disease are the driving forces in the picture that parents are seemingly unaware off. Although the director Larry Clark definately fulfilled his purpose of shocking all who dared to witness, his ultimate goal was well wide of the mark. Ultimately 'Kids' was meant to be a stark wake up call for parents who beleived their children could do no wrong. However I feel Clark's mistake was that everything in the film was so extreme it came across as being majorly over the top. The characters and their actions were so unbelievable most of the time that parents would simply dismiss them as things that terrible juvenille kids took part in. I believe that after seeing this movie no parent would be worried that their child was doing anything as bad as what was depicted. Kids is definately shocking, but overall to extreme to be believed.

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