Love him or hate him, Larry Clark continues to make movies. The man who brought the world such questionable cinematic gems as Kids and Bully returns to the silver screen with his most audacious film to date, Ken Park. The film itself is named after a character in the film. A character that we meet within the opening moments as he finds his way to a skate park and removes from his backpack a camcorder and handgun. With a gleefully disturbing smile on his face he raises the handgun to his temple and pulls the trigger, blowing his brains out as the rest of the skater kids gather around to gawk. Welcome to Larry Clark's world.

Beyond the realm of this shocker of an opening, we're introduced to a few of Ken Park's "friends", or as they liked to call him, krapnek, get it? With friends like these...well, you know the rest. There's Claude, a young man who has to deal with his weightlifting beer-swilling father who likes to express himself through all kinds of abuse, be it verbal, physical or even sometimes sexual. Next up is Shawn, who spends his time squabbling with his siblings, or chasing after his girlfriend's mom, who happens to be the neighborhood "milf." If the cover of the DVD is any indication, chasing isn't the only thing he's doing. Tate is a young man who lives with his grandparents, he's a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode, which is evidenced from the first moment we meet him. Not only is he abusive to his grandparents, he's also abusive to his three legged dog aptly named "Legs". Every solid group of friends needs a feminine touch, so I'd like to introduce you to Peaches. An island girl who's religious father spends his time mourning the untimely death of his wife, clutching his bible while seated on furniture covered in plastic. Dysfunctional is definitely the word around these parts, like you've never seen before. But, at the same time, Clark manages to show us the functional within the dysfunctional. Certain elements of the family unit are definitely present, to different degrees (and warped to fuck, mind you), depending on whom you are dealing with.

I'd be hard pressed to tell you that I'm a fan of Larry Clark and his films. I don't really think that any of them are particularly good films, by any means. However, I've seen them all (more than once) and find them to be extremely watchable and dare I say - fascinating at the same time. Each time Clark rolls the camera he tries to out sicken himself and I have to say, is always successful in this quest. As freakishly disturbing as Kids and Bully were, Ken Park gleefully crosses every fine line placed before it, guaranteed to make you blush.

As with most if not all of Clark's flicks, Ken Park doesn't rely to heavily on plot or structure of any kind. We're basically given the same thing we're given in any Clark film, a group of young teens, running around a California suburb while smoking, drinking and having sex. As close to hardcore as Clark's previous films have gotten, Ken Park doesn't shy away from taking the full-on leap into this territory. There's oral sex (in fairly explicit detail) of both the guy on girl and girl on guy variety. There are all manners of explicit heavy petting and some nude bumping and grinding, featuring a little more of the grinds than the bumps. The whole thing culminates with an odd and extended menage a trois between Peaches, Sean and Claude. The kids look young here and I'm too lazy to check out the IMDB for the "facts" on their ages, so you do the math. Although I would assume for legal reasons that they are all at least 18. Clark has a knack for finding actors who look a lot younger than they actually are.

Most impressive about Ken Park are the performances (a few of these kids have never appeared in a film before) and the unexpected appearance of Amanda Plummer as Claude's chain-smoking, pregnant mother, which nearly threw me for a loop to say the least. Although after seeing Plummer in Mimic Sentinel (review here), nothing should really surprise me anymore. Ken Park is not high art, but the fact of the matter is that it will get a reaction out of you. Whether it's outrage, disgust, compassion, understanding, or any other number of feelings that your typical mainstream multiplex flick will most certainly not elicit.

Available uncut as a Region 0 PAL Russian import (the box lists it as Region 5, but the disc is indeed Region 0), I seriously doubt that ANY American distributor will be brave enough to pick this one up for uncut distribution, so if you're interested, pick it up while you can. The 16X9 widescreen transfer is actually quite impressive all things considered. Colors appear quite sharp and true with virtually no evidence of print damage. The 5.1 surround track available in both English and a Russian narrated track are equally clean and basic. Dialogue is crisp while surrounds get minimal activity. It fits the program at hand quite well and is a nice compliment to the excellent image quality.

While Ken Park related extras are virtually non-existent save for a few incomplete BIOS, there are a few unrelated trailers included. Easily recommendable for fans of Clark, or those curious enough to dive into this seedy world of depravity, this is NOT a film for everyone, and will most certainly not rock your world. As outrageous as this film gets, I don't know how Clark will ever be able to top himself, but when he does...rest assured that I will be there.

Be sure to check out xploitedcinema.com for a copy of Ken Park or any other imported DVD madness you may be after.