It begins with Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), the main character and resident condom-despising lothario, seducing a tanned, virginal lass in her bedroom. Both in their undies, they start with some extreme tongue kissing before they smash-cut straight to the act. We hear Telly\u2019s inner monologue during all the panting and moaning: \u201cVirgins. I love ’em. No diseases, no loose-as-a-goose pussy, no skank. No nothin\u2019. Just pure pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s Kids<\/em> in a nutshell. This grungy bit of Gen-X teensploitation marked the directorial debut of Larry Clark, a then-middle-aged photographer who captured drug-addicted, reckless youth in the books Tulsa<\/em> and Reckless Lust<\/em>. He brought his fascination with hedonistic, self-destructive teens to the Big Apple, where he recruited Washington Square Park skateboarders and young, non-union actors to populate this teenage wasteland, written by a 19-year-old weirdo named Harmony Korine (who would go on to direct such cult curios as Gummo<\/em> and Spring Breakers<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Clark\u2019s nasty, nihilistic version of New York, parents are nowhere to be found, and preteens and teenagers (every last one of them a gotdamn amoral delinquent) roam around the city looking for chaos. They smoke weed, drink forties, piss in public, harass gay couples, and \u2013 in one unsettling scene \u2013 collectively beat the living shit out of someone looking for a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, of course, there\u2019s the sex. It\u2019s all these little bastards think about; they\u2019re either having it or talking about it or working their way to get it. Clark does establish the different perspectives both sexes have on the matter. Most of the first half hour is Clark cutting back and forth between boys talking about their conquests in a dirty apartment and girls giving their horror stories in the bedroom of very experienced teen Ruby (Rosario Dawson). Both powwows are verbally graphic, but while the guys talk about sex like it\u2019s a bloodsport, the gals see it as a pleasurable time-waster boys often screw up with their machismo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The girls are also sensible when it comes to their health. We see Ruby and her pal Jennie (Chloe Sevigny) getting tested for STDs, but Jennie is the one who gets bad news: She is HIV-positive, and Telly \u2013 the only guy she\u2019s been with \u2013 gave it to her. Jenny spends the rest of the day trying to track down Telly, who is already on the hunt for another girl to deflower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even after 30 years, Kids<\/em> is still an uncomfortable watch. Seeing these youngsters engage in simulated, intimate activity (one scene has teens watching a foursome of youngsters intensely make out in the back of a nightclub) and excessive, debaucherous partying may have even the most liberal of viewers clutching their pearls. Clark shoots this in a guerilla, fly-on-the-wall style that often slides into voyeurism. From the hella-homerotic shots of shirtless boys spraying themselves with water and lifting weights to a scene of underwear-clad girls making out in a pool, Kids<\/em> is a filthy, punk-infused gumbo of underaged depravity. Of course, Harvey Weinstein had to have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though he initially turned down covering the movie\u2019s $1.5 million budget, Weinstein later wanted Miramax to distribute the film after producer Cary Woods (in carrot-dangling mode<\/a>) screened it for him. Weinstein was ready to go to bat for Kids<\/em>. Unfortunately, he knew Disney wouldn\u2019t. Still smarting from the Priest<\/em> controversy<\/a> earlier that year, Disney didn\u2019t want to deal with any more wild acquisitions from the Weinsteins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With Clark refusing to cut one frame (even for an R-rated version that could be available to rent at Blockbuster Video), Weinstein had an unrated bundle of trouble in his hands. But he had a plan B: buy the film back from Disney (he forked over $3.5 million) and release it under another studio. Kids<\/em> remains the one-and-only theatrical release of Shining Excalibur Films, which secretly had Miramax employees handling the marketing and promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the film\u2019s taboo subject matter predictably whipping up divisive reviews (Roger Ebert gave it three-and-a-half stars<\/a>, while Desson Thomson called it \u201cglossy exploitation\u201d<\/a>) and words of condemnation from conservative watchdogs (then-presidential candidate Bob Dole led the charge<\/a>, going after Hollywood for releasing degenerate art he hadn\u2019t seen), Kids<\/em> went on to gross $7.4 million domestically and $20.4 million worldwide. It made rising ingenues out of Dawson and Sevigny (who briefly had a relationship with Korine after filming). Sadly, other castmates\u2019 lives were cut short. Justin Pierce, who won Best Debut Performance at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards<\/a> for his performance of Telly\u2019s lecherous pal Casper, hung himself in a Vegas hotel room in 2000. His pal Harold Hunter, who had a supporting role as sexually aggressive skater Harold, had a cocaine-induced heart attack six years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kids<\/em> wasn\u2019t the only thing giving kiddie-porn chic back in the summer of \u201895. Calvin Klein Jeans caused a similar uproar when it dropped a suggestive ad campaign, shot and directed by photographer\/frequent Madonna collaborator Steven Meisel. The commercials<\/a> had an off-camera voice (not Meisel) creepily interviewing waifish, babyfaced models (including Kate Moss and Bijou Phillips, who later appeared in Bully<\/em>, another frank teen drama from Clark) in what looks like a wood-paneled basement. Although the commercials were eventually yanked from TV after two weeks and the company was later investigated by the FBI and the Department of Justice for possible child pornography violations, Calvin Klein did sell a helluva lot of jeans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As both Kids<\/em> and the Calvin Klein ads proved, sex sells \u2013 and, unfortunately, so does sexy stuff with minors. Kids<\/em> could\u2019ve been about inner-city, NYC teens building a community where they could escape the urban squalor and personal traumas and be free, skateboarding spirits. But that\u2019s not what Clark wanted. According to the 2021 documentary We Were Once Kids<\/em>, Clark and Korine infiltrated these kids\u2019 spaces, looking for hungry, wet-behind-the-ears juveniles to appear in their nightmarish coming-of-age story without adult supervision. They may have been smoking and drinking a lot, but they weren\u2019t as sex-crazed as the movie makes them out to be. That bit of information now makes Kids<\/em> look, if not disgusting (as one recent anniversary piece<\/a> put it), then pitifully hollow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though Kids<\/em> has its fans (the late rapper Mac Miller\u2019s 2010 mixtape K.I.D.S.<\/em> includes audio snippets from the movie), I haven\u2019t heard an outcry for a re-release. (As I mentioned in last month\u2019s column<\/a>, the woman who helped Kevin Smith get his religious satire Dogma<\/em> back from Weinstein also has Kids<\/em>.) It seems that even ardent supporters know something this disturbing and transgressive most likely wouldn\u2019t fit well in our sensitive, culturally conservative times. If Kids<\/em> ever did get the 4K digital-restoration treatment, I get the feeling younger, savvier audiences might dismiss it as a shameless, salacious, controversy-stirring relic. After all, it was brought into this world by Clark and Weinstein, two of the dirtiest old men ever to make independent movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah,<\/em> Kids isn\u2019t available to stream, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not <\/em>out there<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/kids2-1024x683.webp\")
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