Ken Park (2002)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance

Starring: James Bullard, Stephen Jasso, Maeve Quinlin, Tiffany Limos, James Ransone, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Wade Williams, Adam Chubbuck

The individual stories of 5 American youngsters and their encounters with sexuality and family life. Ken Park (Chubbuck) whose friends tease him by reversing his name to 'Krap Nek' (Crap Neck) shots himself in the middle of a skateboarding park. Shawn (Bullard) a boy who knew him, narrates his life story along with that of his friends. Shawn shares a sexual relationship with his girlfriends mother, Rhonda (Quinlin) without the knowledge of anyone else. Peaches (Limos) lives with her overtly-religious father and who has lost her mother at a very young age. Her father resents her relationship with a boy and beats him for sharing a sexual relationship with her. Claude (Rasso) needs to tolerate his drunk and violent father who believes his son is not man enough and resents his skateboarding and everything else that he does. Tate (Ransone) is an unpredictable, unstable and sadistic psychopath who lives with his grand parents. He hates his grand father because he believes he cheats in Scrabble and his grand mother whom he believes invades on his privacy. The movie's title is disconnected from the main plot and although Ken Park's suicide intentions are revealed it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the main characters apart from their common friendship. The movie is slow and is filled with a lot of extreme sexuality and nudity which comes across as being very unpleasant. It has a very deep and artistic approach to itself and is not recommended for all.

Thumbs up: Natural performances and acting

Thumbs down: Too high on sexuality, slow

Rating: 6.3/10