Ken Park (2002)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Directors:

Larry Clark
Edward Lachman

Writers:

Larry Clark (stories)
Harmony Korine (screenplay)

Release Date:

31 January 2003 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama | Adult

Tagline:

Who are you?

Plot:

It's about several Californian skateboarder's life and relationships with and without their parents.

Plot Keywords:

Teenager | Skateboarder | Sex | Alcoholic Father | California

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Adam Chubbuck	...	Ken Park
James Bullard	...	Shawn
Seth Gray	...	Shawn's Brother
Eddie Daniels	...	Shawn's Mother
Zara McDowell	...	Zoe
Maeve Quinlan	...	Rhonda
Stephen Jasso	...	Claude
Wade Williams	...	Claude's Father (as Wade Andrew Williams)
Tiffany Limos	...	Peaches
Julio Oscar Mechoso	...	Peaches' Father (as Julio Oscar Mochoso)
James Ransone	...	Tate
Patricia Place	...	Tate's Grandmother
Amanda Plummer	...	Claude's Mother
Mike Apaletegui	...	Curtis
Harrison Young	...	Tate's Grandfather
Ashley Crisp	...	Rebekah (as Ashley E. Crisp)
Lazavier James	...	Rebekah's Friend
Daniel Helwick	...	Friend #1
Gabe Nava	...	Friend #2
Sam Baptista	...	Friend #3
Shanie Calahan	...	Hannah
Chelsey Earlywine	...	Hannah's Girlfriend
Bill Fagerbakke	...	Bob (as Bill Faggerbakke)
Richard Riehle	...	Murph
Caroline Kristiahn	...	Prostitute
Loranne Maze	...	Ken Park's Girlfriend
Luna	...	Legs
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Larry Clark	...	Hot-dog seller (uncredited)
Elvis Strange	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Larry Clark
Edward Lachman		(as Ed Lachman)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Larry Clark		stories and characters by
Harmony Korine		screenplay

Produced by
Olivier Brémond	....	executive producer
Pascal Breton	....	executive producer
Victoria Goodall	....	line producer
Kees Kasander	....	producer
Jean-Louis Piel	....	producer
Wang Wei	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
Larry Clark
Edward Lachman		(as Ed Lachman)

Film Editing by
Andrew Hafitz

Casting by
Carmen Cuba

Production Design by
John DeMeo

Costume Design by
Michele Posch

Makeup Department
Sabina Bonvillain	....	hair designer (as Sabine M. Bonvillain)
Sabina Bonvillain	....	makeup designer (as Sabine M. Bonvillain)
Jamie Escarra	....	additional hair stylist
Stacey Panepinto	....	hair stylist assistant
Stacey Panepinto	....	makeup artist assistant

Production Management
Charlie Vogel	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jennifer Fragoso	....	second second assistant director
Chad Rosen	....	first assistant director
Dawn Stewart	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Reed Bernstein	....	property master
Krit Fagtongpun	....	swing
Craig Getman	....	lead man
Jim Kingslan	....	swing

Sound Department
Dennis Grzesik	....	sound mixer (as Dennis 'Big D' Grzesik)
Malaika Langa	....	audio post coordinator
Dominick Tavella	....	sound re-recording mixer
Roland Vajs	....	additional sound mixer
Roland Vajs	....	sound editor
Magdaline Volaitis	....	sound editor
Stacey A. Washer	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Kam Cooney	....	special effects (as Cam Kooney)
P. David Miller	....	special effects crew (as Paul D. Miller)

Visual Effects by
Reinier van Brummelen	....	digital effects

Stunts
Lou Simon	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Nicolas Amato	....	best boy electric
Bennett Cerf	....	assistant camera (as Bennet Cerf)
Dale Cole	....	grip
John W. DeBlau	....	lighting
Jeff Dyer	....	first assistant camera (as Jeff Dryer)
Scott Eades	....	best boy grip
Gayle Hilary	....	camera loader
Courtney Jones	....	key grip
Julie Kovermusz	....	grip: second unit
Miek Krajci	....	second assistant camera
Leigh Ledare	....	still photographer
Dean Lent	....	additional camera operator
Dean Lent	....	additional camera operator: second unit
James McMillan	....	key grip: second unit (as Jim McMillan)
Steve Mulcahey	....	key grip
Steve Mulcahey	....	key grip: second unit
Tuan Nguyen	....	video operator: second unit
Kevin Blair Rogers	....	additional camera loader (as Blair Rogers)

Casting Department
Natasha Cuba	....	casting assistant
Joey 'Pain' Young	....	extras casting: second unit

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jasmine Kostraba	....	assistant costume designer (as Jasmine Christina Kostraba)
Michael Maize	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Seth Anderson	....	assistant editor
Brent Joseph	....	assistant editor
Jeff Marcello	....	assistant editor
James Palumbo	....	assistant editor
Chris Weber	....	negative cutter
Lee Wimer	....	color timer

Music Department
Matt Clark	....	music consultant
Howard Paar	....	music supervisor

Transportation Department
George M. Geminiano	....	driver (as George Geminiano)
Doug S. MacLean	....	transportation captain
Mark E. Mobley	....	transportation coordinator

Other crew
Rhonda Bingham	....	paymaster
Maxine Brooks	....	studio teacher
Krenton Caudle	....	emergency medical technician
Dwight Hovey	....	studio teacher
Brent M. Jones	....	production consultant
Leslie Kharma	....	production office assistant
Max Kraus	....	assistant location manager
Kent Linker	....	studio teacher (as Kent Lanker)
Jay Mason	....	script supervisor
Barb Maze	....	baby wrangler
Jonathan McCoy	....	production coordinator
Joe McGraw	....	location manager
Maggie Means	....	production accountant
Mark Moore	....	set medic
Jane Nisselson	....	title designer
Irwin M. Rappaport	....	production attorney (as Irwin Rappaport)
Leslie Rogers	....	assistant production coordinator
Steven Ruecker	....	assistant to director
Gerry Villareal	....	title designer
Dan Riley	....	legal assistant (uncredited)
Lou Simon	....	fight choreographer (uncredited)

Thanks
Bruce Bennett	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Busy Bee Productions
• Cinéa
• Kasander Film Company
• Lou Yi Inc.
• Marathon International

Distributors

• A-Film Distribution (2003) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Cinema Mondo (2003) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Fine Films (2003) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Independent Partners (2004) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Mont-Blanc Distribution (2004) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Neue Visionen Filmverleih (2004) (Germany) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (video)
• CP Classics (Russia)
• Clyde Films Inc. (Japan)
• Divisa Home Video (2005-2006) (Spain) (DVD)
• Fortissimo Film Sales
• Impuls Home Entertainment (2005) (Switzerland) (DVD)
• Legend Films International (2004) (Germany) (all media) (rights)
• Metro Tartan Distribution Ltd. (UK)
• Pan Européenne Distribution
• Universum Film (UFA) (2004) (Germany) (DVD)
• Vitagraph Films (USA)

Other Companies

• Action Payroll  payroll company
• Dee-Lite Catering  catering
• Dee-Lite Catering  craft services
• Image Resolution, The  title and opticals
• Planet 10 Post  post-production sound facilities
• Sande Alesai Casting  extras casting
• Sound One Corporation  post-production sound facilities

Runtime:

96 min | Argentina:98 min (Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema) | Sweden:97 min

Country:

USA | Netherlands | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby SR

Certification:

Canada:R (Alberta) | Iceland:16 | Hungary:18 | New Zealand:(Banned) (DVD/VHS release) | France:-16 (video) | France:-16 | France:-18 (court decision) | Singapore:(Banned) | Argentina:18 | Australia:Refused Classification | Brazil:18 | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Finland:K-18 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:III | Italy:VM18 | Japan:R-18 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 (film festival rating) | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:18 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Busy Bee Productions

Trivia:

On 3rd July, 2003 a public screening from an imported DVD was shown at the Balmain Town Hall (New South Wales, Australia) but shut down after a raid by the Police. No arrests were made.

Quotes:

Peaches' Father: Peaches is such a good girl.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Teens (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Mom and Dad's Waltz

Storm in a teacup

Much has been made of this film's depiction of sex. Depending on who you ask, the scenes in question are "brutally honest" or simply "disgustingly pornographic". Both descriptions boil down to the same thing either way: you get to see erections. And ejaculate. A shiver goes through the audience, people shift in their seats - we are not used to seeing this in a non-pornographic movie, and it kind of throws us off-balance for a moment. But then, as it must, the film goes on and we are left to wonder what it was actually about. The reason I dislike this film, as I did both Kids and Bully (two movies that appear tame by comparison), is simply because once you take away the shocking aspects of it - the violence, the no-holds-barred sex scenes - it really isn't about anything much.

What Larry Clark is apparently trying to say here, is the same thing he tried to say with his earlier films: being a teenager stinks. Life sucks. It's the kind of wisdom that depressed adolescents spray-paint on walls. In the universe of Larry Clark, there are only two kinds of people: those who abuse, and those who are abused, and those two categories may (and probably will) shift in time. This film's defenders invariably use the same argument sooner or later: "This really happens". And it probably does, but it always happens for a reason. In Kids and Bully, there were no motivations given at all for the character's deplorable behaviour. Rather, they were walking, talking symptoms of an ill-defined social illness, and the movies were none too enlightening for it. Here, Clark (and his co-director Ed Lachmann), make a self-conscious effort at motivating the characters, by including their parents. They're the ones to blame, apparently, all of them negligent of their kids at best and downright (sexually) abusive at worst. Aah, but you see, they too are only looking for love and can't find it. They were neglected or abused by their parents as well, and are now continuing the cycle. Deep, isn't it? In stead of spray painting "Life Sucks", one could argue, that Ken Park as a movie might add the phrase: "And it does for my parents as well".

But there's no larger context given to any of this. We get to see the seediness of it (plenty of it), but there is no real insight offered into these characters. Why do these kids (and their parents) do what they do? The only answer the movie seems to be able to provide is: "because they don't get enough true love". Put this exact same message into any made-for-TV melodrama, and people will rightfully spit it out as unbelievably simplistic. We never really get to know any of these characters, much less care about them, because all of them are solely defined by the various ways in which their lives are messed up. We don't remember individuals, we just refer to: "That kid who ate out his girlfriend's mother. That guy who masturbated while choking himself. That girl who was into bondage." In a sense, it becomes a freak show. What they think (indeed, whether or not they think), what they feel, hope, want... It all remains rather vague, hinted at sometimes, but never fully explored, because the movie has ever more bizarre (and exploitative) sexual behaviour to get on with.

Two kinds of people will go see this movie: those who live in the same kind of circumstances, and those who don't. Those who don't, can go home with a more or less secure feeling, because everything they saw had been marginalized, put squarely within this box labelled: "The Lives And Times Of Freaky People We Don't Want Anything To Do With". And those who do... What will they take out of this? Nothing resembling even the slightest bit of hope, since no possibility of salvation seems to exist - the kids of Ken Park appear destined to become just as abusive as their parents, and the very last scene has two of them not-quite-saying they'd prefer to have been aborted. I read one reviewer who was apparently trying to earn a spot on the video cover with the quote: "This is a voice that just wants to be heard. Is that too much to ask?" No, of course not, but the voice doesn't have a lot to say, I'm afraid.

Movies like this, which contain what might be described as extreme amounts of either sex or violence, seem to have a built-in defence mechanism, whereby if you didn't like it, or object to it, you are automatically labelled a prude, who was enormously shocked by it and therefore stopped thinking. Or even worse: a censurer, who would take all "art" he doesn't like, throw it on a big pile and burn it. I assure you I'm neither. In fact, given the amount of discussion about this movie's sexual content, I'd expected it to be even more explicit than it was. And I would never want to ban anything just because I didn't like it. But I also don't believe in that knee-jerk reaction some people have of automatically praising everything that seems to shock others. This is the kind of film that tries to bully you into thinking it's actually about something. Five years from now, after all the fuss has died down, Ken Park will be remembered - if at all - as a storm in a teacup, one of those movies that come along every so often, that everyone has something to say about, but when looked on soberly, in retrospect, really wasn't worth the hassle. Pretty much the same has happened for Kids, after all.