Hey folks, Harry here... I'm not going to edit or fix a damn thing in this column, just so you can experience the hell that is my skull throbbing from looking at the text as it is delivered via Rav's fingertips in Venice. Where and how far have those fingertips gone... well only Rav knows... and I wouldn't push him too far on the subject. Anyways, Larry Clark's latest film seems like it'll push as many buttons as his other work... As always I'm not entirely sure I want to see it, but I know that it will be no idle brained experience. And that, is always compellling!
so hey harry here ya go welcome back to austin.
Note: after I finished the review I discovered the official poster was on-line at the official Larry Clark web site here Click Here
2nd Note: After I finished writing the review and that last note I realized how much my review sucks so heres a list of pathetic excuses for things. Honestly I think I might have spoiled a few things mildly in this review, unintentionally of course. Also sorry for the herky jerky prose in places I have to run off to eat some of my first italian spaghetti bolognese which I°Ã˜m going to have to walk 2 miles to get. Also no spellchecks on this italian coms so forgive and these italian keyboards rearrange punctuation.
Hey Harry,
Wow its weird being here in the Venice Film Festival press room, some mornings I°Ã˜ve been in here and it°Ã˜s a sort of desolate wasteland, but right now there are over a hundred journalists queueing in line to take my computer when I am done. Its hard to believe that I°Ã˜m writing this from thousands of miles from austin, as at times it does seem like Austin cept with sub-titles on everything and a thousand Road to Perdition posters plastered upon everything. Oh, and with Julie Delpy watching movies too! Well here in Italy today I had my mind fucked, I watched Larry Clark°Ã˜s new film Ken Park or also known as Krap Nek. Throughout the past couple of years I°Ã˜ve had a bit of a love\hate relationship with Larry Clark°Ã˜s movies, as I didn°Ã˜t see any of his films until Bully and I wasn°Ã˜t exact expecting a Larry Clark film there I was going moreso expecting a David McKenna film and I got kicked in the head by a Larry Clark flick. As I discovered Larry Clark°Ã˜s works I fell absolutely in love with Another Day in Paradise, found Kids a little overrated but still a great work, and couldn°Ã˜t even get through half an hour of the utterly abysmal Teenage Cavemen. So honestly I had no clue what to expect of his new film, Ken Park, except that it would have a lot of naked teenagers and it does. Even it°Ã˜s poster has naked teenagers, God I hope the poster art on the press materials is used in America, its even a hell of a lot more daring than the rules of attraction poster. To think that someone would just print up a poster of people following Harry°Ã˜s Blade II Review teachings is such a wonderful thought that there are people out there in the world without those inhibitions. I°Ã˜d love to see this poster cause havoc amongst church-goers.
This film is quite a lot to take in moreso than any of Clarky°Ã˜s previous works; he has also managed to cram it with more vile sex than I ever thought Clark could, seriously this film is fucking wacked at times. Ken Park is also the return of the original Kids°Ã˜ duo Clark directing a Harmony Korine script. It is about a group of teenage friends in southern california growing up dealing with their parents and the other trivial problems that life throw at the. That is quite possibly the only way to describe this film and keep it G-rated. This pushes the limits even more in the area of nudity, sex, and violence for American films today, I can just see the MPAA watching the film right now and the 70 year old censors having heart attacks. I can see a new rating banning anyone under 50 to watch this film in a mainstream theatre or perhaps Vivid will just pick it up for release.
Now I don°Ã˜t mean to insult the film with that paragraph, this is a great film don°Ã˜t get me wrong here, but I am trying to make sure you guys arent surprised when you realise you just watched a 3 minute lapping pussy-eating sequence, followed by five minutes of violent suicidal masturbation (now if that doesn°Ã˜t make you wince, I don°Ã˜t know what will), then followed by incestuous homosexual blow jobs, finally climaxed by a three-way-sex-show. Oh and don°Ã˜t worry I don°Ã˜t think I spoiled too too much with that and I still managed to leave out some whores and high-school pregnancies.
So I established that the film retains the Larry Clark seal of quality with the massive inclusion of near-pedophilistic pornography, but the question that still lingers is that is this lump of sex worth a look? In some ways I like to think that any film that can keep me thinking about it for a long period of time afterwards is valuable in some way, and Ken Park does. Ken Park is hilarious throughout, but in parts of the film in which most cinema viewers wont feel too comfortable to go ahead and laugh. I love this movie, (rav°Ã˜s pretentious idiotic comment comes in 5.4.3.2.1) it has managed to comment on the social worth of the individual teenager better than any film previous. This film is more like Kids than any of his other films, and I personally prefere Ken Park to kids. As the first three minutes of this film just grabbed me and kept me enraptured in a way no other film at this festival has. I kind of wish Mr. Clark would get off of the pornographic side of his films and just tell a fucking story, seriously sex manages to completely get in the way of anything meaningful trying to be told in this film. Clark has something to tell here, but it°Ã˜s quite hard to see with that pussy in my face man.
Although the sex is not exactly whats truly disturbing, this film takes a look into the mind-set of teenagers a tad less mentally stable than his other works. Here he is more going for the mindset of say the kids that shot up Columbine, rather than just a couple of druggies. This is a rather disturbing descent for anyone to watch, and many will just deem it exploitation. Actually some of it might just be exploitation, but frankly its exploitation that I can°Ã˜t peel my eyes away.
So in the end Clark has made a maniacal, demented, sexual, violent film that might cause a few hundred catholic riots upon its american release°¶all the more reason to embrace it and love it. A master work Mr. Clark and Mr. Lachman, just next time try to keep their clothes on!
Later this week I will be interviewing Mr. Clark and Mr. Lachman, everyone hurry and send in your questions J
Rav
E-Mail : Milking Kitty Kats Can Be Fun, If Not Aggravating!!!
