LARRY CLARK'S STILL NOT KIDDING

Clarke Speicher / The Review: University of Delaware / September 7, 2001

Controversy abounds when Larry Clark brings his vision to the screen.

In 1995, Clark released his directorial debut Kids - about juvenile delinquents and a teen who has unwittingly been spreading AIDS to virgins - to a maelstrom of upset parents. Clark followed that up with Another Day in Paradise, which passed through cinemas with nary a notice. The film, about a family of coked-up criminals, was decidedly less provocative than children having sex. Today, in a culture drenched in fear about the impact of movies involving teen-agers, Clark unleashes Bully, the true story of how six friends from South Florida murdered the boy who tormented them.

"I don't know why we had so much trouble getting this film made," Clark says.

"I guess the studios took the position: `We can't make this movie because it's about kids killing kids. Columbine just happened. We're afraid [Sen. Joe] Lieberman and these people will attack us. If we put it out there, and some more kids get killed, we're gonna take the heat. And Congress is going to pass laws against us. And blah-blah-blah.' "

Clark says he makes his films not with the intention of inciting protests, but to spur conversations about why these things happen.

"Maybe it'll open some fucking dialogue about what's really going on. Maybe all the subtext in the film will make you start thinking and hit you on a different level - not dropping an anvil on your head and giving you such an easy way out. Film's an amazing form for that. It's almost limitless."

Clark's basis for the film came from Jim Schutze's chronicle of events in his book, "Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge." On July 14, 1993, Marty (Brad Renfro), his girlfriend Lisa (Rachel Miner) and four other friends (Bijou Phillips, Michael Pitt, Kelli Garner and Leo Fitzpatrick) lured Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl) to the Everglades with the promise of alcohol and sex. Instead, they exacted revenge for the psychological, physical and sexual abuse he subjected them to.

"What's truly scary about these kids is they had parents who thought they knew them," Clark says, "but really the kids were in their rooms smoking pot and screwing.

"It's a total lack of communication. The parents wanted their kids to be happy, so they tried to avoid any hint of confrontation, but the kids were out hustling and stealing."

Clark says he may empathize too much with his characters because of his own troubled past.

"Actually, I had a fucked-up childhood," he says. "My early life is a bottomless well to drop into and pull up stuff."

While he intends to provoke audiences, Clark has also earned himself an enemy with the Motion Picture Association of America, the organization that gives movies their ratings.

"Fucking jerk-off assholes," he says.

Clark was forced to release Kids and Bully unrated to avoid the stigma of NC-17.

"With Bully, we asked the MPAA what we had to do to earn an R and they sent back a fax saying, `Our advice to America is: Hide your children.'

"Besides, every kid in America saw Kids, " he says. "We think they'll do the same for this movie. Fuck the MPAA."

Tom Ortenberg, co-president of Lions Gate Films which is distributing Bully, stood by the director's original cut, agreeing to let the film hit theaters unrated.

"There's a lot of sex," Ortenberg says. "To have trimmed it down to an R we really would have had to lacerate the film. Going out unrated was really the only way to go. It's very edgy and hip, and hopefully we'll get some good word of mouth going and play for a long time this summer."

Since its limited release in July, Bully has garnered praise from film critics, including Roger Ebert who hailed it as "a masterpiece." Ortenberg is no stranger to controversy himself. His studio has been the salvation for such inflamatory works as Dogma, American Psycho and most recently O, also about high school shootings.

"We don't look for controversy, but that happens when you do things off the beaten path," he says.

Surprisingly, one thing Clark has come under fire for is a lack of nudity. While naked female flesh prevails in Bully, there's no shots of male full-frontal nudity.

"I was trying to get an R rating during filming, so that's why I never show a penis," Clark says. "It's impossible to get an R rating with male frontal nudity."

In future projects, Clark promises to make up for the discrepancy.

"In my next movie, Ken Park, there'll be more penises than you can swallow."

Now with two films about youth culture under his belt, Clark seems to be a master of examining the way the wonder years shape people into who they become.

"It's interesting to see the differences between how kids grow up today versus when I was a kid. The information these kids have at an early age is totally unlike the way I was brought up, where you weren't told anything. That fascinates me.

"I guess I've been doing it for a while now. I seem to be not bad at it."

But no matter what the MPAA says or how youth-oriented his films may be, Clark intends his movies to bridge the generation gap.

"Whatever anybody says, I make family films that should be seen by parents and kids together," Clark says. "I took my son to see Kids when he was 12 and he said, `Gee, Dad, I never saw anything like that before.' "Well, of course not, with all the crapola out there."