This film is not representative of youth as whole

Maybe its your generation or your geographic location, because i was a teenager, growing up in public schools in new york city in the 90s, and this was so insanely accurate it was scary. Not just in my group of friends, but in other cliques, and in other high schools as well.

You do realize this film took place in the mid-90s? Your comment would be like me saying Mad Men was not accurate since nobody smokes anymore.

I grew up in NYC and I was about their age when this film was released. While I did not choose to live that lifestyle, it is a very accurate portrayal. One other fact often lost on viewer of this film, it was worse in the suburbs. So many parents were saying "I am so happy I am not raising a kid in the city" when the film came out. Little did they know that drug abuse among teen in the suburbs was much worse. I joke with my friends in college who grew up in the suburbs that every ABC After School Special took place in the burbs.

The only part that was a bit far fetched was the fact that Jennie had HIV and we are to assume Telley did as well.

this film portrayed pretty much any random day/weekend from 1992-1997 for me.
little less rapey, little less aid'sy, but walking around ripping off food and booze, and smoking, drinking, generally trying to get paid, or find something to do or break, or whatever.
just generally trying to be a hard-ass, and probably failing...

The problem here BOTA, is that people who behaved in the same way as the children portrayed in this movie are attracted to this board due to the affinity and identity they feel with them and therefore we don't get a balanced view. I get the impression many are impressed by the soulless, black-hearted children in the film and not repulsed as the film-maker intended, due to the fact they were once that way.

Deviant people very often attempt to make out that their behaviour is normal and commonplace to hide the fact that they are atypical. What better way to justify an abhorrent lifestyle than to suggest that is how everyone else acts!?

15% maximum.

What I think is strange is while this is representative of teens in the 90's, it's also representative of teens in the UK right now

I'm 16 and I live in Britain and this is pretty accurate for even now

You missed the point here.

You wrote, "however, this movie is only accurate to represent some groups, but not most of them, let alone all of them."

This makes your whole argument silly because it wasn't Larry Clark's intension to make a film about most young groups. He made a movie about a few groups of young people in that area (like you said) so I dont know why your using statistics.

You do know that youth groups are different depending on the location and time? There isn't a general over view of what youth life is actually like.

I assure you, Larry Clark made an accurate representation of what he wanted to represent.

The first time I saw this movie I was a sheltered 16 year old kid living in the suburbs of New York City. And I was horribly offended because this in no way represented my lifestyle or any of my friends.

Then I grew up a little, went to college, and lived on my own. I loved it the second time I watched it, when I was 20 or 21: by that time I had not only hung out with teens like that and in some of the same locations (Washington Square Park, where they rolled the blunt and beat up the black kid, was my go-to location to buy a bag of shtty weed when all my other sources were dry), but I also knew several people who were involved in the production.

The authenticity was stunning. Larry Clarke used real teenagers, many of whom lived the very lifestyle that the story was about. To the OP: just because not every teenager in America lives that way doesn't mean it's not an eerily accurate picture of some of them.

of course it's not, did you expect the movie to portray all varieties of kids behavior

that would have been one lengthy movie







so many movies, so little time