Kids (1995) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna

It's an amoral world, dominated by Telly, who looks and talks like the ultimate geek-boy, but whose completely amoral and relentless pursuit of virgins gives his life its only source of amusement. And he doesn't care about the girls afterward, or about any other non-virgins. He's ready to move on to the next virgin. This is his immortality. All these girls will remember him because he was the first.

The innocent in this world is Jennie (Chloe Sevigny in her screen debut - 21 years old but playing five years younger). Jennie only had sex once - with Telly, of course. She accompanies her friend to a clinic for an HIV test. The camera switches from her interview and physical to her friends. Jennie tells of her nearly complete inexperience. Her friend is seen casually reeling off her list of experiences, including unprotected anal sex with multiple strangers. Cut to the results. The high-risk friend is OK. Jennie is HIV-positive.

Obviously she thinks she contracted it from Telly, but there is no explanation of how Telly contracted HIV. Obviously there must have been a flaw in his virgins-only strategy.

The rest of the movie is spent watching Jennie search the streets of New York for Telly, for reasons the filmmaker doesn't share with us. To warn him? To cuss him out? To warn the latest girl/victim? We don't know. She finally finds him too late, asleep at a party in the arms of another deflowered maiden.

Jennie is exhausted from her long search, so she wanders into the living room to sleep on the couch, where Telly's drugged-up friend finds her, and screws her senseless while she's 95% asleep.

End of film.

I appear to be in the minority on this one, but I was bored stiff. I guess I'm too jaded to be shocked by the sensationalism that fascinated some people, and I found absolutely nothing in the experiences of the characters that I didn't already know, so what was there to hold my interest? I agree it was honest, but so what? Ralph Nader is honest, and I don't want to watch him for two hours. D or worse.

Tuna's comments in yellow:

Kids (1995) is one of those films I really wish I hadn't watched. As a matter of fact, I wish it hadn't been made. Not only is the subject thoroughly depressing and disgusting, but the cinema verite style looks its worst throughout, the actors al talk at once (maybe that isn't so bad considering the garbage they are spewing), and I think this is my first F of the year.

Leo Fitzpatrick is a New York inner-city high school punk. When he is not too busy smoking dope, getting drunk, beating people up, shop lifting and stealing from his mother, his real thing is deflowering 13 year old virgins. When he takes their virginity, he leaves something in its place -- AIDS. None of his friends are any better, and all of the girls are so starved for what they think is affection that they are easy prey.