Kids - Larry Clark (1995)
Let's be honest; this will not be the only Larry Clark film on this list. I love him. He's my favourite director. I said that once in a film class and the tutor shot daggers at me before saying, "He's to disgusting to be your favourite director." I mean, she was old, but really?
Anyway, I love this film so much. On its release it faced huge critical bashing because its central plot was that of Jennie, a 15 year old who had sex once and tests positive to HIV. It's all inner-city New York, which in the 90s was not the safest place to be. The two lead guys, Casper and Telly are completely repulsive characters with little positives to speak of, except I don't hate them, I pity their complete lack of response to social norms. Their never-ending quest to take the virginities of the girls around them is uncomfortable to watch, but I compare it to an eclipse - you know you shouldn't be watching it, but you can't help it.
Clark's directing is voyeuristic, and you feel like you shouldn't be a part of it, but you can't look away. This film is fucking brilliant in my opinion.
Elephant - Gus Van Sant (2003)
In the same vein as Larry Clark, Gus Van Sant is an auteur. His films are always uniquely "him". Elephant was the absolute deserved winner of the Palme d'Or in its year of release. It looks at the frightening incident of the Columbine highschool massacre that occured in the 90s, which sparked so much debate over the gun laws in the States. But what this does so well is it doesn't romanticise the issue. The film is done in this strange almost real-time way. It's really stunning, with long shots of students just walking down the corridor. It has scenes which look at the small issues that fill in teens lives. And then the massacre begins. It's insane. I love this film, I love Gus Van Sant's work. I mean, Good Will Hunting remains with me as probably one of the best films I have ever had the absolute pleasure of watching.
Mysterious Skin - Gregg Akari (2004)
This is, I guess for want of a better word, weird. It's seriously weird. It was banned for a short-time in Australia before it got it's straight-to-DVD release. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt in that time period he had in between Third Rock from the Sun and 500 days of Summer. Things got weird for him, in the same way that Mysterious Skin is farked up, so is another flick of his called Brick from the year after this. Anyway, this is a really weird film. Gordon-Levitt plays a strange, cynical gay hustler from an abused childhood who strikes up an unusual friendship with Brian (Brady Corbet from Thirteen), who believes he was abducted by aliens as an 8 year old child, but can't remember it properly. It does have scenes of sexual violence and child abuse. It can be hard to watch, but because of how unusual the plot is, it's interesting.
2:37 - Murali K. Thuralli (2006)
I loved this movie when it first came out. I've watched it since then and I think that the acting is questionable at the absolute best. It's an Australian film. In the opening scene, the time is 2:37, and an unknown student at a highschool commits suicide in the bathroom. The film goes back to the start of the day and we follow six highschool students around, who are all haunted by their own psychological issues which could lead to their eventual suicide - but who dunit!? That's the big question. I mean, some of the characters are irritatingly retarded, but it's still an interesting concept, if not slightly overdone. Worth watching however.
As one critic said, "with all its faults, it's hard to hate 2:37".
Ken Park - Larry Clark (2002)
This film is still banned in Australia. I mean, I guess kind of unsurprisingly. It's incredibly graphic and its content is so outrageously taboo. Pedophilia, incest, rape, suicide. The film starts with a skater, aptly named Ken Park, shooting himself in the head at a skate park. This is used a basic predecessor for the other totally unruly and blatantly dicrepit acts carried out by others in the neighbourhood. Through all of its uncomfortableness and just total lack of self-respect to humans, I think this film is quite incredible! Ha ha. Clark definitely does not ever hold back. It's crazy to see how far he is willing to push boundaries reverberating far beyond social norms.
I have more, and I will return with more. I wrote a huge post and then my computer had a total meltdown and I lost it all. How irritating.
Word.
Peace.
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