Storyline
A controversial portrayal of teens in New York City which exposes a deeply disturbing world of sex and substance abuse. The film focuses on a sexually reckless, freckle-faced boy named Telly, whose goal is to have sex with as many different girls as he can. When Jenny, a girl who has had sex only once, tests positive for HIV, she knows she contracted the disease from Telly. When Jenny discovers that Telly's idea of "safe sex" is to only have sex with virgins, and is continuing to pass the disease onto other unsuspecting girls, Jenny makes it her business to try to stop him.
Directors
Cast
Rosario Dawson, Jon Abrahams, Justin Pierce, Leo Fitzpatrick, Chloë Sevigny, Sajan Bhagat, Billy Valdes, Billy Waldeman, Javier Nunez, Luis Núñez, Christian Bruna, Alex Glen, Joseph Chan, Johnathan Staci Kim, Adriane Brown, Sarah Henderson, Michele Lockwood, Carisa Glucksman, Harold Hunter, Yakira Peguero
Trailer
Reviews
100
Cautionary tales aren't new. What sets Kids apart as daringly original, touching and alive is its authenticity.
90
Disturbing because it is so believable, Kids goes well beyond any previous American film in frankly describing the lives of at least a certain group of modern teenagers.
88
Since Fitzpatrick is an actor (and "no ladies' man," he told Clark), this is a performance and, as such, one of the most effective I've seen. It's amazing how, watching the film, you dislike Telly so much you want to deny Fitzpatrick's accomplishment in creating him.
80
Mr. Clark's vision of these characters is so bleak and legitimately shocking that it makes almost any other portrait of American adolescence look like the picture of Dorian Gray...Kids is far too serious to be tarred as exploitation, and its extremism is both artful and devastatingly effective. Think of this not as cinema verite but as a new strain of post-apocalyptic science fiction, using hyperbole to magnify a kernel of terrible, undeniable truth.
60
Empire
Without a doubt, hard hitting and thoguhtful, but Clarke's style here (as it would continue to do) hints at something altogether more disturbing.
