Saturday night saw Kids on 35mm, really good print. By the time the movie started at 12:30am I had been awake 22 hours, ready to nod out through most of it, but went anyway because who knows when, if ever, I'll have another opportunity to see this one on film. Kids really is one of a kind, almost like a documentary with no narrator. Now it's a filmed time-capsule of a generation that faded away over two decades ago, still bearing relevance and hitting as hard as any timeless classic does. The authenticity is jaw dropping. Most of the roles were tailored to the person cast in it, so it's no wonder how the conversations and actions feel so natural, the performances so effortless. Having not seen the flick in full for at least 10-years, I forgot just how good it was. First time I heard of this one was waiting for the school bus about 2 months after its release and overhearing a bunch of kids waiting with me go on about how it's easily the best movie ever made. Growing up around skaters at the time, this movie was hard to avoid, everyone I know saw it, spoke about it, reenacted scenes, but I actually did not get around to Kids until probably '02/'03. I have a distinct memory of reading the screenplay in the fall of '97 on my dad's computer and being amazed by the dialogue, how real if felt, like someone was transcribing taped conversations of kids I knew. As big an impact as Kids had on the indie scene, I can't think of many movies that imitated it successfully and were able to stand on their own. I know there were a few cheap knock-offs, although I can't rattle off any titles off the top of my head. Really glad with my decision to man up, fight the fatigue and make the screening, if only for Harmony Korine's fishbowl-lenses glasses cameo. This retro movie theatre down here is playing movies programmed by Korine all month (titles include Easy Money, OC and Stiggs, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, BMX Bandits, Gleaming the Cube, Any Which Way You Can, Belly,Beat Street) in addition to all his work. They played Trash Humpers on 35mm last week, which I missed thanks to a cold. Will try to catch julien donkey-boy and Gummo next week, think the only Korine I've ever seen was Spring Breakers, which didn't do much for me mostly due to Franco's sorry excuse for a Riff Raff imitation.
