I’ve never seen a movie, pornographic or otherwise, as disturbing as “Kids”. It was released in 1995 by Shining Excalibur Pictures, an independent distribution company created by Miramax Films’ Bob and Harvey Weinstein for the sole purpose of distributing this movie due to the disapproval of Disney, Miramax’s parent company, had with its NC-17 rating in the United States. The movie’s only known stars are young Chloe Sevigny and Rosario Dawson. I have never seen this movie before.

Knowing the infamous reputation preceding it, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to rent it via Blockbuster Online. To my pleasant surprise, I found the DVD tucked away snugly in a mess of assorted junk mail just a few days later. What a perfect treat to come home to after a tumultuous whirlwind of craziness the porn industry knows as AEE in good ol’ Las Vegas.

I throw my suitcases on the ground, not bothering to unpack them, and take a quick shower. I pop the movie in the DVD player and get settled underneath the covers, not anticipating the jaw-dropping mess that awaits my eyes.

It immediately begins with two prepubescent-looking “kids” madly making out in a setting which would easily befit a scene from a “young girl” porno series. Except the only difference is that the real scenario which the movie depicted doesn’t involve AIM tests or dated model releases. Anyhow, the freckly boy with a protruding under bite gently strokes the innocent doe-eyed girl’s cheek and woos her with enough convincing empty promises that he’s able to take off her colorful boy-cut panties and deflower that innocence. At that point, my memory unleashed a flurry of past heart-to-heart talks and words of wisdom that others had tried to bestow upon my peers and myself when I was younger; “Wait till you find someone special”, “Boys just want one thing”, “You can’t take back your virginity” — words I thankfully took some heed of, as I ended up not regretting losing my virginity to the person I lost it to. But I wanted to scream those same words of wisdom to that poor girl on my television set (although realistically I’d be screaming at a girl who would be like 31, since this movie was released in 1995), especially when that pasty little brat who accomplished his initial mission started raving about his recent exploits to another presumed fellow delinquent.

From an outsider’s perspective, these kids looked about the right age to be donned in crisp brown uniforms and accumulating merit patches for their sashes. Instead, they were parading around the dirty streets of New York dressed in oversized skate attire and using the foul vocabulary of a rusty sailor. The female characters in the movie were no exception. They were talking and giggling amongst themselves in what looked like could be another setting of a “young girl” porn series (maybe this time a younger lesbian series) and exchanging sexual stories that made me, someone who’s been actively involved in the fucking porn industry for four years, blush uncomfortably in my dumbfounded state of shock. The movie then continued to illustrate the lives of these teens as they went through their daily ventures, some of which included stealing liquor from corner stores, outright disrespecting and using filthy language towards elders, and beating up a confrontational thug to a bloody pulp in the middle of a park. I don’t want to give away most of the movie, but obviously this movie’s purpose was to intentionally prompt viewers to never underestimate “kids” and maybe even to second guess when “kids” say: “Oh, we’re just hanging out.”

One thing I do appreciate about this film is the way it was shot documentary style. It looked as though it were shown from the kid’s point of view. I did like the camera angles, and I thought that the lighting added to the reality that, I believe, the director was trying to portray. It had the perfect amount of tension to depict the seriousness of each character’s dilemma. I liked how it was hard to guess the “kid’s” (I shudder to use that word) exact ages despite them being portrayed as so young. The script was delivered in such a way that it was gritty and realistic, so much so that viewers could see this happening in REAL LIFE!!!

It is safe to say I didn’t drift off to sleep that night reminiscing of the fun times I just had in Vegas. Instead, traumatizing thoughts of these untamed kids running wild in concrete jungles haunted my dreams. According to the end credits, “a portion of the proceeds from this film will be donated to teen crisis organizations.” Good riddance.

See more of Gianna at www.giannalynn.com.