This film will definitely challenge your views on "art" and "pornography". I'm thinking it may become a barometer for civil libertarians and conservatives alike so if you get a chance, go out of your way to see it. It's definitely relevant to our bizness....
MrPopup<SUP><FONT SIZE="-1">TM</FONT></SUP> Movie Review #1
Title: Ken Park
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0209077
Venue: Vancouver International Film Festival
http://www.viff.org/viff02/filmguide...hp?FCode=KENPA
I attended my very first film festival screening yesterday. An exhilarating experience for any film buff as I sat amongst legions of reporters, film fans and perverts alike.
Larry Clark, the director, and Harmony Konine, the screenwriter have abandoned the art of filmmaking for the sake of a cheap publicity grab in attempt to resucitate their pop culture horse and pony show.
What I mean is, Ken Park is basically
KIDS Redux. For those that don't know, KIDS was a mid-nineties arthouse film that garnered some mainstream news because it depicted the bleak world of drinking, drug-taking, sex-crazed New York teenagers. Well guess what? Ken Park depicts the bleak world of drinking, drug-taking, sex-crazed suburban Californians! However, times have changed, and obviously so have censors, because the filmmakers strive to "enhance" this version with shockingly "hardcore" material. Thats right...instead of merely implying that the "actors" in this film have sex, we see it.
We see a a full body shot of a boy masturbate and coming to full climax while he auto-asphyxiates. We see fingers inserted into a vagina. We see semen stained under shorts. We see a middle thirties housewife receive oral sex from her teenage lover - complete with LAPPING sounds! We see a father taking his sons penis into his mouth.
Throw in a few particularly violent and disturbing scenes not having to do with sex, and you've got the recipe for A S H C R O F T - inspired outrage. Once this movie gets around, you can be sure your local moral authority won't be pleased, so don't expect it to play in any theaters near you. The place you'll most likely see it is on an "Unrated" DVD (not that any non-porn distrrbutors will carry it. Vivid Video, you reading this?)
While I'm sure all actors are over 18, the roles they play are of 15-year olds, which is going to bring up a slew of criticism about the depiction of child pornography and its artistic merit. Think they have their Title 18, Section 2257 records in order?
Unfortunately - publicity was the same card played by Clark and Konine in their first collaboration. And they use it in a way that attempts to overshadow the actual work by its newsworthiness. Seems like the goal of the filmmakers wasn't to enhance their body of work, but to achieve just a little more noteriety - and it'll probably work.
These two have injected some serious controversy in their films, and we all know controversy equals cash, right? Well, for a little while anyways. Just wait until the next film in this trilogy comes out. What kind of shocking images will we be immune to by then?