Movie Review: Ken Park

Ken Park
Directed by Larry Clark
96 min.



What Am I Doing With This Movie

That's a good question. I don't really care for Larry Clark or Harmony Korine's work. I haven't seen all of their films, but I was severely disappointed with Kids, Bully, and Gummo. I'd sworn off seeing anything else by them, but the controversy surrounding Ken Park intrigued me.

A brief recap of said controversy:

- According to Wikipedia, 'The movie was not shown in the United Kingdom after director Larry Clark punched and attempted to strangle Hamish McAlpine, the head of the UK distributor for the film, Metro Tartan. According to Clark, McAlpine expressed support for Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, and, when an appalled Clark asked him about women and children victims of Hamas terrorism, McAlpine basically said that they deserved to die, at which point the altercation began. Clark was arrested and spent several hours in custody, and McAlpine was left with a broken nose.'
- It is banned in Australia for its sexual content.
- In New Zealand, it is only able to be viewed in film festivals or film courses, due to its R18 rating.
- Since its completion in 2002, the movie has not found a distributor in the U.S.

I wasn't gonna go out of my way and order some import DVD of this for $25 (after all, the odds were I'd hate it, given the filmmakers) but I figured if I ever came across a copy a friend had, I'd give it a shot to see what all the fuss over the content was about. After years and years, that happened.

What Did I Think

I wouldn't say it's a good movie per se, but there's some good stuff in it. Lemme get to the bad stuff first, though.

What's Bad

- Utilizes several pointless voice overs and title cards in the first 15 minutes, and again at the very end of the film. There's no reason for them to be there at all. Be a slice of life, movie. Don't try to be a visual novel. Harmony's writing is far too atrocious for the latter to ever be accomplished.

- Glaringly atrocious dialogue in several scenes. Borderline after school special. I don't care that some of the characters in this movie are based on real people from news stories, I assure you they didn't talk like that one bit. Feels like Harmony got really lazy writing a few scenes, and had nobody to tell him his shit stank.

- Several stupid character arcs, and useless scenes.

- Terrible cinematography. Far too many close ups. Zoom the fuck out and leave the camera be sometimes. Tell a story with the kind of shots you use and when, for chrissake.

What's Good

- Great acting performances all around.

- All sex and violence is handled remarkably tastefully.

What Is It Banned For Then

I have no fucking clue. People are retarded. I don't particularly care for Clark or Korine, but I don't think any of their movies deserve not to be seen. Especially not this one, which is the best thing I've seen of either of them. There are a lot good scenes in this, and I wish sex was handled this well in most movies with LESS graphic content. I don't feel any real need to see this movie straight through ever again, but particular scenes I would watch over.

I probably wouldn't watch another Harmony Korine movie, as the idea of him having full control over one of his scripts makes me cringe, but I will watch Larry Clark's other stuff. Could be good.