Kids

Potentially the most controversial movie of 1995 and arguably a masterpiece, this edgy, downbeat film falls somewhere between social document and peep-show. Photographer Larry Clark's feature debut follows a crowd of bored, unblushingly aimless New York teenagers through a day of hanging out and having sex; both activities are depicted in sometimes excruciating verite detail. The narrative center and moral focus of the piece is Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), a nascent scumbag with a taste for deflowering and abandoning girls. There's no overt moralizing here: when we learn that Telly's HIV-positive, we're expected but not compelled to contemplate the obscure cause...