Drexl

Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

I don’t think I want to see this film. Larry Clark skeeves me out bigtime. Our own Rav still hasn’t recovered from his time spent with Clark and Clark’s film in Venice, and now Drexl’s here to scare me even further:

Here it is, as promised, my KEN PARK review.

Holy shit.

You think KIDS was nasty? Better buckle up ‘cause KEN PARK gets butt ugly! Before I get into spoiler territory I’ll give you guys my personal view on the flick.

KEN PARK balances on the edge of art and porn. But what defines art? What defines porn? Some people claim porn to be "erotic and exciting". If I was to follow that, then KEN PARK is definitely no porn. Then again, I’ve seen my share o’ porn that was, quite frankly, appalling. It feels wrong to draw comparisons with last years’ IRREVERSIBLE. Both are controversial and divide moviegoers into two camps but these movies are very different even though they both end on a similar, dare I say it, dream-like note.

So here we go…

Beware… SPOILERS!

KEN PARK opens with the, to my surprise, by (minor) visual effects enhanced suicide of a teenager, the title character. We’re in suburbia and it’s a hot, idiots filled hell. We meet four kids and during the course of the movie we find them in situations and we see them react. It all ends with a ‘is it a dream or is it real’ threesome that, awkwardly enough, felt like the most relaxing (no, not in that way you perverts) moment of the movie.

When I entered the small theatre on a very hot day I expected to be alone but to my surprise, numerous old guys came in and a sick thought crossed my mind. Boy ow boy, I hope no one goes Travis Bickle on me. The very possibility of some dude goin’ at it during the screening made me feel uneasy and I remembered seeing a guy walking in wearing shorts during EYES WIDE SHUT, when it was released here in Belgium during the winter. Disgust alert!

Anyway, enough intro. You wanna know why this thing is banned in Sydney right? Why it’s been labeled ‘unreleasable’?!

Four characters. The first one, Shawn (James Bullard) dates a cute girl his age but in secret has an affair with her attractive mother. The first sex-scene is the most erotic if you wanna know. It actually feels sweet somehow and, despite ‘forbidden’, we find out Shawn really loves this woman. But for all this analysis, it’s basically a young guy eatin’ a stunning blonde thirtysomething’s pussy. For Shawn’s part of the story, that’s basically it and he’s actually a pretty ‘decent’ guy even if his character arc is limited to him asking Mom if her husband has a bigger dick than his. Mind you, this is not Stifler’s Mom American Pie-ism. This is hardcore.

Claude (Stephen Jasso) lives with his parents (Wade Andrew Williams and a crazy Amanda Plummer). His tough macho dad suspects him being gay, hates him for not working out like him and despises him for being a ‘skater’. Him breaking Claude’s board is equal to breaking his son’s spine. At first I figured "this guy’s Claude’s stepfather" because of the way he talks to his son in a ‘you’re my pal but fuck with me and you die’- way but it got ugly real fast. There’s a, to me, sick twisted funny moment where Dad goes out with his friend Murph (played by Richard Riehle, an actor you’ve seen a thousand times before – he’s been ‘cop n° 1’ on many credits and starred in e.g. GLORY, THE PUBLIC EYE, BODY OF EVIDENCE, FREE WILLY, THE FUGITIVE, CASINO, THE FAN, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, LETHAL WEAPON 4, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG and appeared in every television show known to mankind. This guy’s his own trademark). Anyway, Dad and Murph are lookin’ for pussy and when they turn out to be unsuccessful the very definition of sickness appears on screen.

Tate (James Ransone) started out as being the character whose story I was most interested in. That was, until he started hitting that three legged dog. No animals were harmed, yeah right. The look of that dog tells me everything I need to know. But Tate’s actually the closest thing to a ‘comedic character’. He lives with his sweet grandparents and they don’t get along. When his grandma comes into his room he yells at her: "Get the fuck out o’ my room, you fuckin’ bitch!". Nice. He collects pictures of skinny, starving African kids and jerks off at tennis, while putting a towel ‘round his neck and attaching it to a doorknob. Is he gonna come first, or will he be strangled first?

The only girl is Peaches (Tiffany Limos) and her story is devastating. Her father (Julio Oscar Mechoso) is a deeply religious, good natured man who loves the fact that his daughter is starting to look more and more like his deceased wife. When Peaches brings home a boyfriend and they are about to have some intercourse fun, things turn for the worst.

There’s more but I’ll stop here. KEN PARK needs to be seen. Whether you like it or not is not really the point. Clark and Lachman cooked something up that might be made to shock some people or to provoke thought. You decide.

What I do know is that Clark has the urge to zoom in on every dick. A guy’s taking a piss… pan down. "Look, it’s his real penis and he’s pissing". The infamous jerk-off scene? Prepare to be squirming in your seat. Is this necessary? I don’t think so, but it does make KEN PARK the movie it definitely wants to be.

What I did like however were some of the obviously darkly comic moments - the scrabble game, Plummer’s toenails, The Quest For Pussy – and those rare instances where a character doesn’t come off like some sex craving or aggressive asshole. The four characters are actually pretty sympathetic (well, maybe not Tate) but it’s even worse to see initially ‘good guys’ turn bad real fast. Peaches’ dad is the prime example and you feel it the moment he appears on screen. His devotion to religion is not normal and it’s a bubble that is about to burst. When it does, prepare to get hurt.

Maybe it’s just me but, as I mentioned before, some actors are very familiar and to see them in this movie is weird. Peaches dad has been in VIRUS, BAD BOYS, he was the guy on the boat at the start of JURASSIC PARK 3 and he also stars in Rodriguez’s when-is-this-gonna-be-released Mariachi epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO just to give you some examples.

So why’s this banned you ask? For graphic cunnilingus, spanking the monkey, murders, pissing, dog beating, threesome action, drug use, an amount of ‘fucks’ that makes Tarantino feel like Walt Disney and dicks, tits and pussy galore.

I hope for Clark’s sake he did indeed cast kids over 18, or else he’s in a lot of trouble.

Is it a good movie? I really don’t know. It’s a bleak, nihilistic ‘days in the lives of’ flick with a very dark, twisted comedy brewing underneath. When I felt that, I liked it but it’s not something I need to see again and even though the sex scenes are the movie’s much talked about moments , they feel too long and redundant. If you’re open minded, by all means, go see this. If not, stay far away.

One last thing, NEVER tie your date to the bed. When it comes down to it, he (or she) might wanna run!

Peace out!

Drexl

Creepy. With a capital “CREEPY.”

"Moriarty" out.