Kids

REVIEW
This unrelenting cinema verité look at a group of Manhattan teenagers seems destined to shock even the most hardened sensibilities. The assault begins even before the film's opening shot as we hear the distinct and magnified sounds of two teens ferociously sucking face. The ensuing scene, in which the film's antihero, Telly, talks his way into "fuckin' a virgin", basically sets the tone for the whole film. As we follow him, his buddy Casper, and a bunch of other delinquents through 18 hours of unbridled hedonism, Telly boasts about previous virginal conquests and plots his next -- when he's not suckin' on a 40, smoking a blunt, kicking the shit out of some poor guy or harassing fags. Unlike other films about youth at risk (Christiane F., Pixote), Kids offers no moral imperatives and makes no apologies. Director Clark (who made a name for himself photographing his fellow heroin addicts) employs astounding camerawork and a well-thought out narrative structure to present a disturbingly real picture of these wayward youths. The result is socially compelling though bordering on nauseating to watch and may leave one contemplating a vasectomy or tubal ligation.