Larry Clark
The ongoing theme of teen sexuality continues with writing duo Larry Clark and Harmony Korine in ‘Ken Park’ (2002). All teenage angst aside, Clark points out more sexual insecurities within the adult figures rather than the societal expectation of teenagers. It appears that these teenaged skate punks actually have more wits about sex than their elders.
The overall theme of an enticing desire for love and sex circulates in various meanings and scenarios, from the initial scene of Ken Park shooting himself in the middle of the skate park to the end of the film, learning why Ken Park took his life.
Larry Clark shows the most genuinely loving scene of three main teenagers having an orgy, finally feeling and receiving the love that they have been lacking from their childhood.
Cutting frequently between subplots allows us to feel the story behind each character until we connect the meaning at the end of the film. Through each glimpse of the characters, we see the various human and animalistic tendencies of sex: the lust of sexual restraint with a teenage boy and his girlfriend’s mom, overly religious sexual abuse, and sexually repressed obsessions with a father and his son.
Through scenes of the most morally degrading moments of adults and their children, the viewers are convinced to believe that the teenagers are the ones who have it right, to actually love sex for what it is, to freely love without societal rules and restraints.
Ken Park
director LARRY CLARK
year 2002
director of photography LARRY CLARK and EDWARD LACHMAN
cast JAMES BULLARD, MAEVE QUINLAN, TIFFANY LIMOS, STEPHEN JASSO and JAMES RANSONE
words ELLEN GRACE
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