Film ‘Kids’ Not Proper For Kids

An appeals panel of the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board decided Wednesday that the controversial film “Kids” is not suitable for kids.

Meeting in Los Angeles, the appeals panel of the Classification and Ratings Administration declined to reverse the NC-17 rating given to the film several weeks ago. As a result, Excalibur Films, a company formed to distribute “Kids,” will release it as an unrated film.

“Kids” is scheduled to open in some locations July 28.

Written by 18-year-old Harmony Korine and directed by world-renowed photographer Larry Clark, “Kids” follows a half-dozen or so Manhattanites in their late teens and early 20s for the duration of a hot summer day.

The behavior depicted includes drug use, unprotected sex and what Bowles described as “predatory sexuality”; the ratings board said it gave the NC-17 rating for explicit sex, language, drug use and violence involving children.

The film has been acclaimed at such prestigious festivals as Sundance and Cannes, and Bowles said he had hoped parents would have been given the opportunity to see it with their teen-age children.

“These are common dilemmas that kids face all the time now, and this is the first film that opens up a window to this world and shows how it really is, not some Hollywood version of it. It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s a real picture.”