Director Larry Clark has always had a knack for getting people’s attention, be it his stark photographs of depravity in middle America or “Kids,” his provocatively controversial cinematic debut. In his latest film, Clark picks up where he left off, turning Eddie Little’s pulp novel into a big screen mesh of “Drugstore Cowboy” and “Bonnie and Clyde.”
Set in the retro-hip 1970’s, Woods plays a small time hood, with a junkie habit and his eye on making it in the big time. Melanie Griffith is a maternal tour-de-force as James Woods’ companion who watches over their adolescent cohorts in crime (Vincent Kartheiser and Natasha Wagner looking like heroin chic, Calvin Klein models). Lou Diamond Phillips add a dicey touch as a vindictively brutish queen and the bluesy/Dylan soundtrack is undeniably first rate. For a base, downtrodden ordeal Clark’s film is one compelling trip of a movie.
