TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2021 REVIEW! There’s no denying that Kids was a huge part of the cultural zeitgeist upon its release in 1995. It was a controversial film as it starred actual teenagers doing stuff that teens really do and featured frank talks and depictions of sex. The documentary The Kids, written by Hamilton Harris and director Eddie Martin, talks to the stars of the movie. If you’re expecting to see an in-depth interview with Harmony Korine, I’ve got bad news. Neither the acclaimed writer/director nor legendary photographer/director Larry Clark appear here except for archival footage. Neither do Leo Fitzpatrick, Rosario Dawson, or Chloe Sevigny. That being said, the documentary is one of the most fascinating and heartbreaking that I’ve seen in a while.
“…focuses more on the then-teens who got left behind by stardom.”
Let me begin by saying that I love Korine, and that was the impetus for me wanting to see this film. I think he’s a weirdo genius, and I wanted to know more about the project that gave him his start in the business. However, The Kids focuses more on the then-teens who got left behind by stardom. The two brightest would-be stars from the movie were Justin Pierce, who was Casper, and Harold Hunter, who played a fictionalized version of himself. Other actors interviewed for the documentary include Hamilton Harris, Jamal Simmons, Ryan Hickey, Priscilla Forsyth, Peter Bici, Javier Nunez, and Jon Abrahams.
In the ’90s, before Kids was released, Harris, Pierce, Hunter, and tons of other skaters spent almost all their time skating around NYC, congregating in Washington Square Park. They cared the most about skating, drinking 40s, and smoking blunts. Hunter was always going around making new friends, and he was the person who first met Korine, who moved from Tennessee to study film at NYU. Not soon after, an edgy photographer, Larry Clark, known for his book Tulsa which depicted graphic scenes of drug use, appeared. People in the scene didn’t understand why an old guy was hanging out with them taking photos, but he would also give them really good weed, so they didn’t ask too many questions.
"…the whole thing is scandalous."
