ken park

[kotte]

The point of the film didn't get across to me...


Can someone please tell me...and not the 'kids in trouble. Lower class. bla bla bla' thing...and if it is, like all his films, it's the most meaningless film of all time...

[Weak2ndAct]

I don't think the film is totally meaningless at all.  Sure, it's graphic as hell, but I found it quite funny (as an extreme satire of sorts).  If you really want some kind of point, what about the last scene?  That poor, pathetic girl and Ken Park discussing whether or not they should keep their child.  Sure it's nihilstic and has a 'life sucks' motto, but Ken questions whether he should have ever been born, and whether or not he should bring someone else into this world.  It's no mistake that Amanda Plummer is pregnant in that storyline.

[kotte]

So all these characters represent the world he's unsure about bringing a baby to?

[NEON MERCURY]

okay, but the fact that Clark had a guy beat it to Anna K and jizz on film -- well, that's hilarious, and almost makes me wanna see this movie...

That is hilarious!  If that's the most "disturbing" thing Clark puts in, then this movie is going to be horrible.  It's waaaay too over-the-top for me to take seriously.

Wait, I just thought of something.  This sounds like something Bunuel would put in for humor.

hahaha...Annna K...sh*t is funny .......its perfect icing on the cake...
...annnd people actually consider this "art"?..i do want to see it..bu tthe same way one would want to see "The Hot Chick".something to laugh at how over the top/stupid it is.......

[wilder]

I watched this last night for the first time since I saw it upon its initial release. I remember seeing Ken Park a decade ago and not really knowing what to think, dismissing it as mere provocation, but revisiting it now I think it's incredibly underrated. Tate's segment (the kid and his grandparents) is a bit excessive maybe, but on the whole I thought the film was pretty great and a high cut above the rest of Larry Clark's movies. Any hate directed towards this film I think comes from the feeling that it's sort of misanthropic and its characters aren't sympathetic in the least, but on a pure filmmaking level it's really well done and the situations in the movie, although unpleasant, are always evocative. The movie stretches out minutiae in a similar way that Raymond Carver short stories do. Tonally, it felt like a close relative of Welcome to the Dollhouse and Storytelling, but with a less humorous (and even if minimally so, comforting) cushion than those movies have.

The full thing is available to watch on youtube.

Ken Park (2002) - NSFW

[Reel]

Thanks! I've wanted to see this for AGES, it's been hard to find...