The Cultural Impact of ‘Kids’
Larry Clark’s 1995 masterpiece showed a teenage world foreign to most of its audience.
When I was in middle school I became aware of a film that would come to impact my creative life by being annoyed at my older sister and her friend. It was a Friday night and their incessant laughing from her adjacent room was keeping me awake. I had a basketball game the next day and needed to sleep.
They weren’t just laughing either, I also heard sounds of shock and horror, a full spectrum of emotions. Whatever it was, they were obnoxiously loud despite my attempts to get them to relax a little.
The next day, I asked them what they were doing and they said they were watching this movie called Kids. Their explanation besides simply saying “it’s crazy,” was that it was like a porno with teenagers. My 13-year-old self found that ridiculous. I had to see it.
Word about this movie was obviously out in our high school but not many of my junior high peers had watched it. I’ve been a naturally curious individual so, at a high school basketball game, I went to get food from the concession stand and started talking to some of the older kids I knew. I asked them about this movie and was able to get a little bit more information.
