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BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
Directed by: Larry Clark
Starring: James Ransone, Tiffany Limos, Stephen Jasso, James Bullard.

Australia 2002.
A film called Ken Park is banned, so popular movie reviewer Margaret Pomeranz hosted an event that handed out DVDs and a screening, she classed this film as "A must watch for all Australians" sadly this event was shut down.

This film was also subject to stressed distribution, not many people wanted to release this film, and it hasn't appeared anywhere in the US.
Recently a copy appeared in my possession. So let's see what the fuss is about.

Opening with a suicide of the title character; Ken Park we are introduced to the four kids who are the main characters of this story.

We have Tate; mentally unbalanced and lives with his grandparents.
Peaches; she lives with her religious fanatical father.
Claude; who’s father is deeply homophobic, and his mother coddles him.
Shawn: Sleeps with his girlfriend’s mother.

The main plot switches between each of these kids and their happenings, now what follows is what set this film apart.
On one side we have a curious piece on modern society and their dealings with how things operate in life, or we have a film that is bland sensationalism.

From the sensationalism point of view.
Sex is the common theme here, and there’s lots of it that’s downright pornographic – not that there’s much wrong with that, just don’t expect to find this sex really interesting, it’s more like watching your best mate and his girl have sex, it’s a curious sight yet incredibly boring.
In terms of “going far” this film goes the full hog, we have one scene of Tate deciding to participate in autoerotic asphyxiation, now this isn’t an implied happening, nope the guy is in full shot banging away to a girl playing tennis, complete with on camera ejaculation.
Other shots that are seemingly there to just shock include the returning home of Claude’s drunk father, where we are viewed to a close shot of his penis as he urinates. Why?

On the other side, we have a film that is frank and surprisingly accurate with today’s experimental adolescent happenings, but to what degree?

Character wise, not much happens, Tate, Peaches and Shawn get their arcs of sorts, but these aren’t fully resolved, the film ends with three of the characters having an idyllic sex scene set to music, before informing us about the fate of Ken Park, who had largely been forgotten by now.

The characters are hard to relate to; they are seen with little aspirations in life and are more concerned with achieving a quick high in life over anything else.

The result is a film that is awkward, it seems to go somewhere, but drops the ball. The cinematography is well done and that’s the film’s only rare acclaim – otherwise this is no more above a student film trying to make some hollow claim about a personal view that they only get.

To note, the director, is around 60, he is going out with Tiffany Limos, despite being about 35 years older than her.

RATING: 3

PROS: Well shot, and thought provocative.
CONS: Sensationalist and bland.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tttt0209077/

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Iblys
Sep 23, 2003

gay for iBag....i mean, disconnect and self-destruct one bullet at a time...
I liked Bully, which was also done by this director, but Jesus this film was a piece of poo poo. None of the stories really had anything going for them, but I did laugh at the violent scene involving Peaches's boyfriend. That was great. Otherwise it's really aimless and smutty and boring.

0/5

TCC: Dude, you gotta play miniature golf.

Iblys fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Sep 21, 2006

Orange Lazarus
Apr 20, 2002
The opening scene and the last scene are incredibly good. In between is just nonsensical shock-filler.

Baldrik
Apr 18, 2006

I never forget a pushy
Completely awful movie. The oval office licking scene was probably the only thing that I was interested in, and that says alot about me and depresses me. I saw way more dicks and semen than I wanted to and ended up feeling guilty for watching the movie at all. I could have watched a one and a half hour porno and felt better about myself afterwards than this piece of poo poo. I did think it was funny when after the guy kills his grandparents with the big knife, he sticks his grandfather's dentures in and sits on the couch and I laughed alot about that.
Maybe I'm the minority, but I don't enjoy watching a movie about the lovely lives some people have, abusive fathers and suicidal adolescents.

-2/5

If you liked this movie than sorry. eat poo poo

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

kudos
May 8, 2006

by Lowtax
This movie seemed like it was trying to be sexual just to be controversial. Watching Mysterious Skin or something after this shows how big a piece of poo poo this movie really is.

2/5 because the kid fucks his friends milf which is always a fantasy.

Kynetx
Jan 8, 2003


Full of ignorant tribalism. Kinda sad.
Pointless crappy softcore porn wrapped around lovely characters and a bland cliched story.

Ramrod Hotshot
May 30, 2003

Hideous. Everything is for shock value, basically. Still, some characters were sort of believable, like the skater kid and the kid who fucks his girlfriend's mom.

2.5/5

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Groan Zone
Nov 21, 2004

chug-a-lug, donna
Nobody has mentioned that this movie is written by Harmony Korine, who also wrote Kids (in about a week mind you). However he really had no creative control once Larry Clark got the script.

That being said, I enjoyed this movie in that the writing was funny, and obviously disturbing. I found it very interesting and engaging. Cinematography was quite nice with the warm temperatures throughout.

What I didn't like was the overall lack of substance, although that's typical Korine once he got older, very non-linear. I finished the movie feeling somewhat depressed and slightly amused, whereas after Kids MY GIRLFRIEND and I shared some tears.

3/5

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