Jennie: Chloe Sevigny
Telly: Leo Fitzpatrick
Kim: Michele Lockwood
Ruby: Rosario Dawson
Girl #1: Sarah Henderson
Casper: Justin Pierce
"Virgins: I love 'em. No diseases. No loose-as-a-goose
pussy. No skank. No nothin'. Just pure pleasure".
Those are the words of irresponsibility uttered by Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick),
just one of the many 'kids' of the title, all of whom look underage but those
who take part in a bit of how's-yer-father certainly are over the legal limit
and couple that with some convincing acting.
There's no plot as such. The film pans out like a docusoap as we watch them
talk about their experiences, the boys brag to their friends and two of the
girls, including Jennie (Chloe Sevigny), pay a visit to the clinic to
count the contractions - not in terms of getting pregnant but in the total
number of infections they've picked up along the way. I don't know which
left a knot in my stomach first: Ruby (Rosario Dawson) talking in a
blase fashion about the number of times she's had unprotected anal sex, or
her doctor casually slurping tea while asking the question.
There are many other disturbing scenes, plus a few hilarious moments performed
in an off-the-cuff fashion such as when Telly and a friend rob the Deli store
and when they play around with tampons.
Kids is a film you must see, but unless you're a die-hard fan, what comes
next will put you off buying this disc.
The 1.85:1 widescreen print is clear of artifacts but loses impact on a
widescreen television because it's not anamorphic.
The average bitrate is 5.90Mb/s, briefly peaking over to 9Mb/s.
The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround) but is used for
dialogue only. There's nothing here to test your speakers, so it wouldn't
really command a DD5.1 remix.
When it comes to extras all we're offered is a 95-second trailer which you'll
watch once only.
Given the lack of extras and a non-anamorphic picture, if you're going to
watch this film again and again then try and get it for a tenner.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
