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79 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Gritty, Graphic Vision of Raw Suburban Hell, March 8, 2005
This is gorilla film making. Ken Park is an incredibly difficult film to watch - in fact it will be impossible to watch for some. Yet, if you allow yourself to be taken into its world, the film paints a disturbingly accurate portrait of a certain culture which is not at all hard to believe.
We see the majority of characters longing, wanting to make a connection with other humans yet feeling alienated. We see, remarkably, the confusion and disinterest of a major portion of an entire generation that views life as hopeless.
The violence, nudity, graphic (and actual) sex never feel like exploitation or pornography, but they will surely keep a majority of Americans from viewing it. Good thing too, or they'd be asking for Larry Clark's head on a silver platter!
If you try to watch this with an open mind, and can leave your inhabitions and judgment at the door, it will be impossible not to be moved - and powerfully so - by this raw and disturbing film.
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30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
W-H-I-P-L-A-S-H, July 8, 2005
Folks, this movie is alright, it's not THAT BAD. Probably the best-worded review I've read for "Ken Park" so far is on IMDB.COM. I think someone named "peedur" wrote it or something. Not that I agree with him 100%, but the good that can be taken out of this film is well expressed in his critique.
Look, FCC and MPAA, you don't want me to see something, then for Chrissake don't ban it. That just makes me want to watch it even more. In all honesty, I don't know if this film should be banned here in America. "Kids" and "Bully" made it through okay, even into theaters. When it comes to teens and sexuality, "Ken Park" might be Clark's most truthful presentation of it. Now I know that's gonna send many parents tearing their hair out, and screaming, "What can I do? How can I save them from this?" Well... you can't.
If you don't want to believe that any of what happens in "Ken Park" is real, then you'd better just not watch it altogether. Parents, the heartbreaking truth is that almost all of what happens in here has happened several times and will continue to happen unabated. I've never lived in Visalia, CA, but have spent ample time there. However, I was born and spent the first 19 years of my life in Fresno (the two are remarkably similar and close geographically). Same stagnant lifestyle, same tendency to listen to punk and hip-hop, same heat, etc.
I appreciate Clark's effort to humanize these kids this time; none of them are what I would call "bad." "Kids" made kids look bad. "Ken Park" makes kids look bored, which is what they really are. Don't scream to the heavens, asking why they would think to do such things, that's nonsense. Why do they smoke dope, drink ad nauseum, jerk off and have frivolous sex...? Because there - is - nothing - else - to - do - there. Gotta alleviate the boredom somehow. For instance, when the devout Father scorns his daughter with the Bible... referring to her as a beast and a whore... nope, she just a teenager. All teenagers are beasts and whores because YOU can't think of any other label for it.
Did I personally have sex with supple young teenage Filipino girls in their parents' Catholicism-adorned house? Actually, right in the parents' bed. I was only 17 at the time. I've challenged my father to a fight, I've gotten impatient with grandparents for taking too long a turn playing a game, I've sat around that living room watching MTV while hitting the bong and bitching about how I couldn't wait to leave the wretched town. I've done it; it happens.
Never jerked off to womens' tennis while asphyxiating myself with a robe belt, but...
It's areas like these that Clark starts to lose me. There is much more male nudity in "Ken Park" than female, so don't be expecting some wild teenaged orgy. There is not even that much actual sex in the movie. In fact, if the main characters in this film were but... 4 years older... I guarantee you this would not be banned here in America.
Visalia has - NEVER - looked as good as it does in "Ken Park" and never will again. It is photographed and directed by two ace DPs after all, so the screen composition, lighting and shading are all luminous and... for lack of a better adjective: warm. As in hospitable. The film looks more expensive than it is.
My favorite scenes are actually the opening scene and the VERY final scene. Without these strong bookends, I'd easily knock off another half-star. I personally detest Harmony Korine (the kid is just a pretentious skater prick that thinks he's Tarantino to the 12th power), however I do like this script... because it's ripped right out of the headlines.
Parents, this is not every teenager. It's really not. But it is a lot of them. "Ken Park" does not seek to illuminate the teenaged psyche en masse, but to offer examples of what we think is tragic and squalid... to be rather mundane existence. With the rather few exceptions of "shock for shock's sake" scenes, it deserves more credit than it's been given. Clark's best film is still "Bully", but "Ken Park" has its merits.
Only for those with less discriminating tastes, obviously. Tread lightly, but if you like your cinema to ignore boundaries (a la Miike Takashi) this one'll send you past the envelope.
3.5 stars, but I'll round up for audacity.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Larry Clark's adolescent apocalypse., May 4, 2009
Larry Clark's "Ken Park" is a divisive, controversial film for those who see cinema as strictly entertainment. On the other hand, viewers who approach this film as art, with an open mind, will see the beauty and tragedy of Mr. Clark's vision. Okay, let's just get one thing out of the way right off the bat - there is a whole bunch of nudity and sexual situations involving young actors playing teenagers in "Ken Park," and many scenes are purposefully uncomfortable. Topics covered in Harmony Korine's freewheeling screenplay include; incest, both straight and gay; teenage suicide; teenage pregnancy; auto-erotic asphyxiation; threesomes; a rat-faced skate-punk performing graphic cunnilingus on his girlfriend's mother, and bloody parricide. That said, the film is beautifully shot, and naturalistically acted, creating a very convincing slice-of-life. Make no bones about it, you will not be hit on the head with any traditional notion of plot or storyline, you are just given a snapshot into the sad lives of a handful of California teenagers. I guess this film is a litmus-test of some kind, but I thought that it was beautiful, terrible, tragic, and fascinating by turns. It definitely is an acquired taste, but then, I've dug all of Larry Clark's films, even his remake of "Teenage Caveman," which shares several young cast-members with "Ken Park." If you are feeling adventurous some night, watch this movie.
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