Ken Park (2002)
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43% of critics liked it
(14 reviews) -
55% of users liked it
(8,953 ratings)
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. The film opens at a skate park, where a troubled character… More 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. The film opens at a skate park, where a troubled character takes his own life; it 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. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Directed By
- Edward Lachman, Larry Clark
- Genres
- Drama
- In Theaters
- Aug 31, 2002 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter
A ragingly controversial feature that makes it very tricky to distinguish between insightful and incite-ful.
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Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Larry Clark's cinema has, if nothing else, very specifically delineated the line drawn by the American court's decency standards under the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act (generally referred to as "2257").
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Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
Here, finally, Clark takes the skankiness out of teen sex, making it into a romantic idyll.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Because the filmmakers cook up an equal number of touching sequences to match their disturbing ones, their portrait of disturbed America comes through clearly and effectively.
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Dragan Antulov, Draxblog Movie Reviews
well-shot, but it is the only good thing that could be said about KEN PARK
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Cast
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James Ransome
as Tate
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Tiffany Limos
as Peaches
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Stephen Jasso
as Claude
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James Bullard
as Shawn
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Mike Apaletegui
as Curtis
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Adam Chubbuck
as Ken Park
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Wade Andrew Williams
as Claude's Father
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Amanda Plummer
as Claude's Mother
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Maeve Quinlan
as Rhonda
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Julio Oscar Mechoso
as Peaches' Father
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Bill Fagerbakke
as Bob
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Harrison Young
as Tate's Grandfather
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Patricia Place
as Tate's Grandmother