| James
Ransome , Tiffany Limos, Stephen Jasso -, James Bullard, Mike Apaletegui
, Adam Chubbuck
Filmmaker Larry Clark
reunites with Kids screenwriter Harmony Korine, with some additional
directorial assistance from cinematographer Ed Lachman, for this
look at a group of troubled teens and their guardians living in
Southern California. Ken Park takes its name from the skate park
where an ancillary character takes his own life in the film's opening
moments, and then proceeds to chronicle the somewhat-interrelated
lives of his classmates. The audience is introduced to Tate (James
Ransome), a young man living in relative misery with his board-game-playing
grandparents. Also tormented by his living situation is Claude (Stephen
Jasso), a quiet, shy teen constantly henpecked by his brutish father
(Wade Andrew Williams). Meanwhile, the vapid Shawn (James Bullard)
occasionally trades verbal spars with his mother, in between leaving
the house for sex sessions with his girlfriend's mom. Finally there
is Peaches (Tiffany Limos), living alone with her devoutly religious
father as she covertly experiments with her boyfriend (Mike Apaletegui).
Though Ken Park played at such festivals as Toronto and Telluride
in the fall of 2002, it would languish on the shelf for months and
months afterward, as its explicit content made finding a U.S. distributor
near-impossible. |