Kids: reviews

What the critics say average 6.0 from 8 outlets

• 10 Rolling StonePeter Travers Cautionary tales aren?t new. What sets 'Kids' apart as daringly original, touching and alive is its authenticity (...). The young cast is dynamite. Fitzpatrick delivers an exceptional performance, making Telly a hypnotic figure of oddball charm and sudden malice. Read
• 9.0 VarietyTodd McCarthy Disturbing precisely because it is so believable, 'Kids' goes well beyond any previous American film in frankly describing the lives of at least a certain group of modern teenagers (...). The film takes a direct, nonjudgmental view of what it?s presenting, suggesting that this is the way it is and allowing viewers to react with whatever set of morals, intelligence, sexual ideas, teen and parental experience they may bring with them. Read
• 8.0 New York TimesJanet Maslin 'Kids' is so tough, with a visual style that looks so uncompromisingly authentic, that its semblance of realism immediately raises questions (...). In the end, 'Kids' is far too serious to be tarred as exploitation, and its extremism is both artful and devastatingly effective. Think of this not as cinema verite but as a new strain of post-apocalyptic science fiction, using hyperbole to magnify a kernel of terrible, undeniable truth. Read
• 6.0 EmpireClark Collis Without a doubt, hard hitting and thoughtful, but Clarke's style here (as it would continue to do) hints at something altogether more disturbing.
• 5.8 Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman If 'Kids' is simultaneously engrossing and detached, observant and just plain showy, that may be because the film is so caught up in trying to be a statement that it never develops its characters beyond their rowdy, bellicose facades. This, of course, is supposed to be the point: As individuals, these kids are sealed off from one another. Sex isn?t just their favorite action, it?s their only interaction. Yet Clark makes the mistake of setting up a melodramatic thread that leads nowhere. Read
• 4.0 Time Out The tone is relentlessly sordid, the view of these pubescent hedonists so hermetic, that the film-makers' 'honesty' seems exploitative and sensational. The film may not say anything new, but the way it says it does, in the end, make it some sort of landmark. Read
• 3.0 The Washington PostDesson Howe Ostensibly about the banality of youthful evil, 'Kids' is simply about its own banality. At best, it's a misplaced aesthetic experiment. At worst, it's glossy exploitation with enough controversy to launch a thousand trite radio and television talk shows. Read
• 2.0 The Washington PostRita Kempley 'Kids', a disturbingly voyeuristic look at adolescent promiscuity, is virtually child pornography disguised as a cautionary documentary. Set in a nihilistic never-never land, this smutty film follows the adventures of 16-year-old Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), a pimply Peter Pan who specializes in deflowering "little baby girls." Except for pedophiles, it's hard to imagine who'll be drawn to this irresponsible Little Bo Peep show. Read