Product Details

• Actors: Amanda Plummer, Julio Oscar Mechoso, James Ransone
• Directors: Larry Clark
• Format: NTSC, Color, Widescreen, Director's Cut, Anamorphic
• Region: All Regions
• Rated: Unrated
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001AZKB8K
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,094 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Filmmaker Larry Clark reunites with Kids screenwriter Harmony Korine, with some additional directorial assistance from cinematographer Ed Lachman, for this look at a group of troubled teens and their guardians living in Southern California. Ken Park takes its name from the skate park where an ancillary character takes his own life in the film's opening moments, and then proceeds to chronicle the somewhat-interrelated lives of his classmates.

The audience is introduced to Tate (James Ransome), a young man living in relative misery with his board-game-playing grandparents. Also tormented by his living situation is Claude (Stephen Jasso), a quiet, shy teen constantly henpecked by his brutish father (Wade Andrew Williams). Meanwhile, the vapid Shawn (James Bullard) occasionally trades verbal spars with his mother, in between leaving the house for erotic sessions with his girlfriend's mom. Finally there is Peaches (Tiffany Limos), living alone with her devoutly religious father as she covertly experiments with her boyfriend (Mike Apaletegui).

Though Ken Park played at such festivals as Toronto and Telluride in the fall of 2002, it would languish on the shelf for months and months afterward, as its non-commercial content made finding a U.S. distributor near-impossible.

Uncut & Uncensored Anamorphic (16:9) Widescreen Version
English 5.1 & Russian 5.1 Audio Options
Optional Russian Subtitles

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 132 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent showing for Larry Clark, May 29, 2009

By 

David W. Reed "construct" (Fort Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ken Park (Uncut Uncensored NTSC Region Free!) [DVD] Larry Clark (DVD)

"Ken Park" has been controversial because of its explicit presentation of actual sexual acts by actors portraying high school kids and because it has been banned in some English-speaking countries and has no distributor in the others. I suspect that the notoriety has overshadowed the actual merits of the film.

The plot is presented as several intercut stories. The stories themselves are almost completely isolated from one another aside from the fact that all the characters know each other quite well. The stories progress parallel to one another, and the characters have absolutely no interaction with one another until the next to last sequence. That scene may summarize the common attitude that prevails among these teenagers, but it doesn't pack much of a punch. In fact the whole movie doesn't pack much of a punch. I'm not sure it really tries to. It simply tells these stories directly with not moral judgments and lets them loose for the audience to make of them what they will.

That is not to say that the performances are weak. They aren't. Most of the young actors had only marginal prior experience in film acting, but they gave decent, workmanlike performances that were perfectly adequate. The supporting adult actors were better, but they generously avoided overshadowing the less experienced actors. So there's not any mismatch within the cast.

The cinematography, art direction, and editing don't call attention to themselves which in this movie is a good thing. The special effects in the violent scenes are believable and seamless. I liked the way the film looked.

The musical score is appropriate and not manipulative. It doesn't get in the way of our personal responses to the stories. That is a real strength in this film. The dialog is always clear. You won't miss a single line. So the movie sounds good.

So there is nothing really wrong with this film. The viewer will like or dislike this film mainly based on how willing he is to empathize with the high schoolers whose stories form the core of the movie. Those stories strike me as pretty extreme, and the characters are not particularly sympathetic, but if they achieve "buy-in," the movie succeeds.

Some will be offended by the actual sex in the film. Others will be offended that these actors are portraying underage characters. That's a matter of personal preference and values, but the sexual contours of the characters' lives are central to the film. So the film did not seem to be exploitive, prurient, or coy (like some of Larry Clark's earlier films were).

Taken in its entirety, the movie is pretty good and better than most of Larry Clark's earlier films.

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NOT FOR EVERYBODY, January 20, 2010

By 

Charlie Spivey "Gamer" (Richmond VA. U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ken Park (Uncut Uncensored NTSC Region Free!) [DVD] Larry Clark (DVD)

This film isn't for everybody, in fact most would probably be put off by this film. It is gritty to the max. I have seen Kidz & Bully. This is yet another foray into the world of teen angst. As in all Larry Clark's films, he seems to portray teens with absolutely no direction that invariably does not end well. In Kidz. you had a selfish teen who only thought of his own desires and inevitably passed on AIDs. In Bully, which was actually based on a true incident in Florida, it ended up with murder of a not so nice teen. The teens portrayed in Ken Park, were not the creme of the crop by far, but yet another group of dysfunctional teens. They had absolutely no direction and lived for the moment. The oral sex in this movie is explicit as are some other scenes of fondling. If you are looking to be entertained, there is nothing entertaining about this movie. There is nothing ludicrous about the scenes portrayed in this film. They are just plain ugly as is real life in some situations.
I gave it 4 stars primarily because of the film quality and production quality, as well as story. This thing will only appeal to those fans of Larry Clark as I don't think anyone else will like it. He has never been shy with his direction and this is no exception. In this, there was very little restraint shown in what he wanted to do. You have been warned, so watch it if you dare.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Larry Clark Raises Cinematic Stakes, August 27, 2009

By 

James C. Vining - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ken Park (Uncut Uncensored NTSC Region Free!) [DVD] Larry Clark (DVD)

"Ken Park" might be Clark's best film, brilliantly negotiating the lines between pornography and psychodrama as he continues his investigation into suburban teenagers' struggles to survive in a world beleaguered by adult pathology. For all intensive purposes, this is an emotional horror film.