January 31, 1996 -- ``Kids,'' a no-holds barred look at predatory urban juveniles, recently came to Laramie as the first show in the Spring Film Festival at UW.

About 300 students crowded into the Wyoming Union Ballroom East for the showing. Most of them sat in silence through most of the film. While there was some laughter during the lighter moments, it was clearly a sobering experience for most.

The film, directed by Larry Clark and written by Harmony Korine, looks a lot like a documentary, but it is not. It follows a teenager named Telly, played by Leo Fitzpatrick, through a day and a night of sex, violence and profanity.

The only thing that Telly seems to like is sex and he prefers young virgins for that. He graphically deflowers two virgins during the course of the film. Another girl is raped near the end of the film and a man is savagely beaten by Telly and his friends. Drug use is also depicted.

The point of the film is that people like Telly and some of his friends are like a cancer on society. They seem to be the product of broken homes, but it is more than that. The kids shown in the film have absolutely no moral foundation for their lives for whatever reason.

The film suggests no solution for this situation, it merely shows what happens when predatory people are loosed upon society. Part of the film is about AIDS. Evidently Telly has the HIV virus and is spreading it around with gusto. Although it did give the story some poignancy, one would miss the point of the film entirely if all one got out of it was a message about so-called safe sex. The film also makes no argument that this particular group of kids is in any way typical of their generation, although some people who have viewed this film have leaped to that conclusion. It is a work of fiction, after all, not a documentary.

This is a very powerful film from an emotional standpoint. Technically, however, it seemed weak. The sound and picture quality seemed poor and the editing seemed quite sloppy. A lot of that could be blamed on the fact that the film was shown in 16 millimeter, rather than the sharper 35mm, and the projector and sound system equipment were less than ideal, but it was, after all, a free film showing, as are all the films in the Festival.

``Kids'' (which is now available on video) rates a B.

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