One of the most brutal juvenile delinquent films ever made. It would have to go pornographic to get more extreme. The soft and skinny kids here aren’t rebels so much as they are wild animals—fucking, drugging, consuming, barely articulate jackals in the streets of New York City. We only see one parent in the entire movie and she’s a penniless slug who breastfeeds her infant openly in front of her son and his friends. There’s not much plot. Director Larry Clark, in his 50s when he made this (his first feature film), came up as a photographer documenting his own drugged-out youth in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma and he continues that obsession here. Kids is the work of a photographer, rather than a slick storyteller. It’s about imagery and moments. The threadbare plot deals with 16 year old Jenny (Chloe Sevigny), who learns that she’s HIV positive—and she’s only had sex with one guy, so she knows exactly where it came from. It’s 17 year old Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), a mush-mouthed beanpole, dumb as a dog biscuit, who looks like he doesn’t even shave yet, but he loves coaxing virgins into sex. Jenny spends the whole movie trying to find Telly, searching for him into the night until she’s half-asleep standing up while he parties away. 
The script was written by an 18 year old Harmony Korine, then a New York City skateboarder with one semester of writing education. It was the start of Korine’s career as a writer/director chronicling the freakier, scummier side of humanity.
Getting this one out took a few jumps through a few hoops. After the indie film kingpins at the Disney-owned Miramax Films purchased it, the MPAA branded it with an NC-17 rating. Disney had a strict policy against releasing anything rated NC-17 so Miramax chairmen Bob and Harvey Weinstein bought the film back themselves and formed a one-off company, Shining Excalibur Films, to release it. It went out unrated on the arthouse theater circuit and became a controversial hit.