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If the casual attitude towards life shown by Telly and Casper seems shocking, things just get worse at their destination. Sitting, blissed-out, in a haze of smoke, watching skate-boarding videos, is a group of kids just like them, but younger. Does no one care about these immature lives going to waste? Apparently not, as they lounge around talking about girls, sex and how women just love to give blow-jobs. Meanwhile, across town, a mirror-image group of girls is talking about exactly the same thing, except that they unanimously detest giving head and the yucky taste of semen. They may only just be teenagers but they know what they like, viewing losing their virginity as a simple rite that must be passed on the road to sexual nirvana. When the topic of AIDS comes up the boys dismiss it as fiction while the girls are more worried, particularly Ruby (Rosario Dawson) and Jennie (Chloe Sevigny) who've taken the test. The shocker is that Jennie tests positive when she's only slept with Telly, once (compare with Ruby who gets away clean despite having slept around constantly).
With this revelation, Telly mutates into a walking, sexually prolific, time-bomb while Jennie tries to track him down (difficult as Telly hasn't spoken to her since his "victory"). The roving pair in question wander by Telly's house to try and get some money, which his mother won't give them (although Casper becomes transfixed as she breast-feeds Telly's infant brother). With this rejection, they steal it instead and head off to find some more drugs at the local park, where their tribe chills out (an obvious example of the lack of parental control exercised over these sociopaths). Perhaps the brightest spot in this bleak tale is the admirable lack of racism apparent, although homophobia is alive and well in this paranoid group. Spurred into action by the heavy mid-afternoon haze, Telly announces to Casper that he fancies a little more "surgery" and that he knows a cute little thirteen year-old who'd be just perfect. The question is, can Jennie reach Telly before he takes both Darcy's (Yakira Peguero) innocence and her life?
Although Kids contains absolutely no nudity, with words and actions the enclosed world of these children is thrown repellently into our faces. Using a documentary feel of grainy footage, close-ups and hand-held photography, the line between reality and fiction becomes intentionally blurred. The actors are all unknown and their characters could easily be real inner-city kids in any run-down, drug-addled urban landscape. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this film is not the behaviour (such as the rape of a stoned girl) shown but the fact that even basic morals are non-existent. The structure on which civilisation rests is simply not-applicable to these youths and, scarily, many of them will live to be adults, when they can cause real damage. However, the film loses focus somewhat in its second half (diverting from the single theme that parents are important) and ends diffusively, with a whimper. The result is a movie that isn't all that good but contains a message of burning importance, and that's enough.
There is one outstanding question though - given that Telly finds that he has AIDS, would he change his behaviour? As Telly says - "Fucking is all I have. Take that away and I've got nothing". I guess not then.
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