I was reminded that "Kids" was released in 15-or-so-odd markets on July 28, 1995. It opened in NYC on July 21. And we all knew people so excited about this. Parts of the movie were filmed around here, of course. And the reviews! ("A wake-up call to the world!") I was dragged along to the Angelika. (According to the Times back on July 26, 1995: " 'Kids' broke the house records for weekend box office grosses at both theaters where it played, the Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.")
I recall feeling underwhelmed by the film, though between the hype and the backlash it was difficult to keep an open mind. Anyway, I watched "Kids" again last weekend for the first time in 14 years...and turned it off after 20 minutes. I'll pick it again some other day.
6 comments:
it's a pretty good movie, but definitely disturbing.
Yes, it was both underwhelming and disturbing.
(I was at Grove when we published the script for this, thus we were there for the premiere and met the cast).
Anyway, the movie featured some of the kids who actually lived in the neighborhood, i.e. some of them were not actors. Weeks after having watched the film, I would often see these kids in the nabe or Union Square skateboarding playing with hacky sacks, hanging out, etc. and we would exchange greetings. Nowadays, you don't see these "kids" anymore in the LES/EV. We now see adults acting like kids.
I always found the film, and the hysteria surrounding it, to be melodramatic and kind of silly. I wanted some sort of explanation for how Telly contracted HIV in the first place when he only had sex with virgins, although I suppose there could have been some subtext I missed back in 1995. Otherwise it seemed like just another corny, if super-grungy, Afterschool Special.
Been also meaning to watch Hurricane (or Hurricane Streets) again ... kids in the EV/LES hanging out, etc., via 1997. They shot a scene at Lucy's (and she still has the poster up behind the bar...). Unfortunately, it was never released on DVD in the States.
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Here's my trivia on this movie: Mark Ashwill, from Missing Foundation and the Spitters, was in a scene in this film that got cut out. His part was him having sex in a bondage mask with a woman when her daughter (or son?) walks in and kills him in some kind of rage. She (he?) uncovers the mask and sees that it's her (his?) father. Or at least that's how Mark told it. I don't know anybody who ever saw the clip that got cut.
I saw this in the theatre on long island when it came out. I was the same age as the kids in the movie.
This was basically right before the internet came out mainstream and everything started to change.
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