Ken Park (2003) on Netflix
In Visalia, California, teenage skater Ken Park shoots himself at a skate park. Four teenagers who knew him, Shawn, Tate, Claude and Peaches, go on with their lives.
- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb5.8/1032,312 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes46%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ken Park, a teenager in Visalia, California, sets up a camcorder at a skate park and shoots himself. The story turns on four other teenagers who knew him. Shawn, the steadiest of them, has a sexual relationship with Rhonda, the mother of his girlfriend Hannah, and the rest of that family knows nothing about it. Claude takes beatings and cruel words from his father, a drinker who dislikes his son for not seeming masculine enough; his pregnant mother offers him little protection. Peaches lives with her obsessive, deeply religious father, who sees her as the innocent image of her dead mother, and she wants her freedom. Tate lives with his grandparents, resents them, and hurls verbal abuse at them.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ken Park (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ken Park was sold for distribution in some 30 countries but was not shown in the United Kingdom after director Larry Clark assaulted Hamish McAlpine, head of its British distributor Metro-Tartan. Clark alleged McAlpine called the September 11 attacks the best thing to ever happen to America; Clark was arrested and McAlpine was left with a broken nose.
- Australia banned Ken Park in 2003 after the Australian Classification Board refused it a classification, citing graphic sexual content and portrayals of underage sexual activity. A protest screening in Sydney hosted by film critic Margaret Pomeranz was shut down by police.
- Harmony Korine wrote the screenplay after Larry Clark jotted down five images he wanted to see on a napkin in red ink, and asked Korine to construct a basic narrative around those images.
- Ken Park has not been released in the United States since its initial showing at the 2002 Telluride Film Festival; Larry Clark says this is because the producer failed to get copyright releases for the music used in the film.
- The plan was to shoot Ken Park on digital video, but directors Larry Clark and Edward Lachman used 35mm film instead.
