I was a fan of Kids and Bully, so my curiosity peaked when I learned that this similarly- themed film was banned all over, and was so controversial that it couldn't find a US distributor. I tracked down the film online and what followed was as painful a viewing experience as I can remember.
The film follows the lives of four random kids and their home lives. The kind of home lives that Jerry Springer wouldn't touch. One kid has a girlfriend who he has sex with on a regular basis, and she is completely unaware that he is cheating on her... with her mom. Another kid lives with an abusive father who constantly berates him and pushes him to become a man... until he decides sex with his son may be the best answer to that. Another young man lives with his sweet and endlessly loving grandparents. The kid is vicious and ungrateful in a way that would make him seem less than human. The fourth character, a girl, is a seemingly innocent religious girl who likes kinky sex. When her Christian fundamentalist father finds out about this, she is forced to marry him.
The film is an all-out assault of unpleasantness. The stories are presented in a cold, bleak manner that rivals Kids for chilling realism, and in this case, that isn't a good thing. The stories are completely pointless. Graphic, taboo, and shocking for no reason other than to make the viewer suicidal. Though the theme of twisted home lives may seem like perfect material for a chilling message movie, Ken Park manages to reduce the concept to nothing but shock tactics. Rather than providing a logical explanation for the disturbing events, it simply presents them in as explicit detail as possible which diminishes whatever the film was trying to say. Rather than show some development of ANY kind to what the relationship between the boy who has sex with his girlfriend's mom and his girlfriend, we are instead treated to a long, pornographic scene of the young man giving her the tongue. Instead of shedding some light on why the kid living with his grandparents truly hates his guardians so much, we instead get a hardcore scene of the kid masturbating while strangling himself. Did we really need to see every last detail of this (right down to the on-screen ejaculation)?
The film is profoundly disturbing, but due to the lack of any clear message, the film simply leaves you feeling worse about being alive rather than make you think like most disturbing movies manage to do. This is the most disturbing movie I've ever seen, made all the more upsetting by the lack of a point. The claustrophobic and chilly atmosphere this film creates would have been a positive had it been for a film with a script that had more on it's mind than shocking the audience to the point of requiring therapy.
Porn disguised as art is still porn. After seeing this film, I wanted to physically assault Larry Clark for being a disgusting pervert and for subjecting me to this ugly garbage called a film. Saying the name of this film leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and so does writing about it. I'm writing it to warn you to stay the hell away from this film. Do NOT let your curiosity get the best of you, avoid this child porn trash like the plague. 1/10.
Ken Park is not rated, but it would be NC-17 for lengthy scenes of pornographic sex acts, endlessly lingering shots of complete nudity, hardcore grisly violence, general brutality, drugs, and language (should language even be considered a problem among everything else here?). Sex - 10/10 Violence - 8/10 Swearing - 10/10 Drugs - 9/10
The film follows the lives of four random kids and their home lives. The kind of home lives that Jerry Springer wouldn't touch. One kid has a girlfriend who he has sex with on a regular basis, and she is completely unaware that he is cheating on her... with her mom. Another kid lives with an abusive father who constantly berates him and pushes him to become a man... until he decides sex with his son may be the best answer to that. Another young man lives with his sweet and endlessly loving grandparents. The kid is vicious and ungrateful in a way that would make him seem less than human. The fourth character, a girl, is a seemingly innocent religious girl who likes kinky sex. When her Christian fundamentalist father finds out about this, she is forced to marry him.
The film is an all-out assault of unpleasantness. The stories are presented in a cold, bleak manner that rivals Kids for chilling realism, and in this case, that isn't a good thing. The stories are completely pointless. Graphic, taboo, and shocking for no reason other than to make the viewer suicidal. Though the theme of twisted home lives may seem like perfect material for a chilling message movie, Ken Park manages to reduce the concept to nothing but shock tactics. Rather than providing a logical explanation for the disturbing events, it simply presents them in as explicit detail as possible which diminishes whatever the film was trying to say. Rather than show some development of ANY kind to what the relationship between the boy who has sex with his girlfriend's mom and his girlfriend, we are instead treated to a long, pornographic scene of the young man giving her the tongue. Instead of shedding some light on why the kid living with his grandparents truly hates his guardians so much, we instead get a hardcore scene of the kid masturbating while strangling himself. Did we really need to see every last detail of this (right down to the on-screen ejaculation)?
The film is profoundly disturbing, but due to the lack of any clear message, the film simply leaves you feeling worse about being alive rather than make you think like most disturbing movies manage to do. This is the most disturbing movie I've ever seen, made all the more upsetting by the lack of a point. The claustrophobic and chilly atmosphere this film creates would have been a positive had it been for a film with a script that had more on it's mind than shocking the audience to the point of requiring therapy.
Porn disguised as art is still porn. After seeing this film, I wanted to physically assault Larry Clark for being a disgusting pervert and for subjecting me to this ugly garbage called a film. Saying the name of this film leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and so does writing about it. I'm writing it to warn you to stay the hell away from this film. Do NOT let your curiosity get the best of you, avoid this child porn trash like the plague. 1/10.
Ken Park is not rated, but it would be NC-17 for lengthy scenes of pornographic sex acts, endlessly lingering shots of complete nudity, hardcore grisly violence, general brutality, drugs, and language (should language even be considered a problem among everything else here?). Sex - 10/10 Violence - 8/10 Swearing - 10/10 Drugs - 9/10