Saturday, April 10, 2010

Kids

Aggie was kind enough to lend me her copy of Kids, and I got around to watching it last night. I was particularly curious about it, because I recall a friend on a forum I post at writing about their hatred for this movie. I'd looked it up back then and it sounded interesting to me.

As I watched it, I braced myself for something tragic and depressing. And on one had, I did get that. The movie is shot documentary-style, and looks at the lives of the characters over the course of a single day in New York. The characters are all young teenagers, 15, 16, even 13 years old. They experiment with drugs, talk frankly about sex, and drink, among other things. I often have a difficult time relating to films where the young characters are so out of control. My teenage years were very different. They were by no means easy years (in fact, they were probably the hardest of my short life), but I never drank or did drugs or behaved the way these characters did in the film. So I wonder just how accurate the picture painted was. Do teenagers really act like this? Maybe because I was so innocent in that way, it just felt very over the top to me.

One issue I did have with the film is the fact that I couldn't feel anything for any of the characters. It was very sad and shocking subject matter, but I didn't feel emotionally attached to a single character. It was very strange to watch a film so tragic, but feel nothing. At the end of it, I thought the feeling was similar to watching a car accident: you know it's terrible, but sometimes you have a hard time feeling anything, especially if you don't see anyone who is injured. But at the same time, you can't look away.

I thought it was an interesting film, though. I did like the documentary-style of it, and I like that it portrayed a single day in the life of all of the characters. Thanks Aggie!

5 comments:

  1. Honestly, my favorite part in the movie is the dude on the skateboard in the subway. "I have no legs, I have no legs."

    Glad you got to see it!

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  2. That part was fascinating. I can't imagine living a life like that: it must be very difficult. But what ended up happening was far from what I was expecting!

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  3. Oh my heavens, that film scared me straight! Well, in a matter of speaking. I watched it twice while I was in high school and was terrified to ever touch drugs, drink or have sex until I reached University. I do believe, to this day, the film has one of the most powerful scenes I have ever watched, and that is the sickening one at the end where the line "It's just Casper baby, It's just Casper" originates.

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  4. That final scene made me sick to my stomach. I think part of it was how long the horrible scene went on for. I just wanted it to end, but it went on, and on! It was powerful, but also very difficult to watch.

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  5. Really? I thought everyone was having a good time in that movie.

    :D

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