Wassup Rockers

I have been a fan of Larry Clark's for many years. Unfortunately the quality of his work is inconsistent.

"Kids" was an amazing movie. "Bully" was (in my opinion), terrible. "Wassup Rockers" falls somewhere in between the two, but closer to "Bully."

All other criticisms aside, this movie was a snoozer. A bunch of kids trying to make it home through hostile territory, dodging police, encountering odd-balls, etc., losing a few of their group en route. It was already done in "Warriors" which was a much better movie.

None of the main characters stood out, and all of the people were portrayed as very two-dimensional. The rich people were racists, except for the girls who secretly wanted kids from the other side of the tracks. If you aren't white and rich, don't set foot in Beverly Hills. And so on. Pure stereotypes, but not very good ones.

For the first 20 minutes or so of Wassup Rockers, I thought "been there, done that." Meaning that, simply, Larry Clark has done this kind of movie before, better, more wisely and with some extra depth on the subject of stray kids doing their own thing without much parental supervision. But then, finally, something started to take shape: the film is, if about something, a class tale, with the South Central Hispanics roaming around Beverly Hills just looking for a place to skate and getting into various misadventures (some funny, some deadly). And at the same time, even more than Kids, there's a raw quality to the performances, with mixed results. It's like that docu-drama Streetwise from the 80s with a touch of Ferris Bueller and then put to a soundtrack of rip-offs or sound-alikes of the Casualties.

Part of the problem of Wassup Rockers is that it is not too interesting within its aimless structure. Having a film without much of a plot can work fine, they're made all the time in independent quarters in America and especially Europe. But it should amount to something by the end, and by the end of Wassup Rockers there isn't very much of a point except, well, don't go into Beverly Hills for too long if you're Hispanic and looking like a member of the Ramones by way of Tony Hawk. But within this jump-around structure, around some of the random sex scenes and skateboarding and the kind of cool scenes of the kids riding their boards to LA punk rock, Clark does create a fun B-movie. At the least, it's never boring, and if it isn't really groundbreaking or as revelatory or whatever as Kids (and it isn't) it does provide something of a small window into something we haven't seen before, or at least I haven't seen before.

Not all of the performances are below par, an in fact there's a charm and down to earth honesty to a lot of scenes (a scene that made me think a lot of Streetwise is when the kid Chico is talking to the Beverly Hills girl in their underwear in her bedroom - this is stripped down to the point of simple documentary, and it suddenly becomes affecting strangely enough). And, if nothing else, it works as a B movie, a kids-on-the-prowl story that should appeal most to anyone who likes to just roam around when they have nothing to do when they're 14 or 15. It's a minor work that has moments of real power.

Wassup Rockers is a marginally amusing exercise in the world of delinquents and under-privileged youth, but I am instantly reminded of the director's, Larry Clark, other works such as Bully and Kids, which were far, far superior to this film. The film plays like a tired rehash of previously fresh ideas, and while we understand that Clark has a deep fascination and understanding of the teenage wasteland that currently exists today, we are unsure how much longer he can keep the idea going.

The film focuses on a group of Guatemalan and Salvadoran skaters in Southern Los Angeles, that rebel against conventional society by not conforming to the simple-minded hip-hop style and music their gang-driven neighborhood happily enjoys. The teens are often referred to as "rockers," as they wear skin-tight jeans, listen to heavy metal and punk music, and proudly wear their hair long and thick. We follow them as they wander aimlessly from skate-park to skate-park, looking for excitement and thrills, as well as some much needed escapism. They wind up being fish out of water when they take a trip to the 90210 culture of Beverly Hills, where they meet two lovely young women who allow them to stop by their house "any time." This is the domino to the trigger of catastrophic events that are likely to and will unfold.

A third of the film is devoted to getting to vaguely know these faces and show how they operate in their skating world, the other is devoted to showing how they associate with the upper-class when they hail from "the ghetto," and the remaining third shows them acting under pressure and fear. Tonally, the film is confused, widely uneven, and unable to keep a solid shift through the day's events without gradually throwing in a curveball.

The characters have some recognizable substance to them, but they are sort of cardboard stereotypes, despite the film's efforts to try and lead them away from that common cliché. The film teeters on the edge of these kids opening up, but it quickly becomes rambling, directionless monologues instead of truly insightful pieces. It is also fair to say that all of the teen-actors do an admirable job at working with the script, and many, if not all, of them are first time actors, showcasing truly remarkable talents in central roles.

The film's main goal is to try and put ongoing tensions between class differences and race-relations on the spot. It succeeds in many of its initial goals, and doesn't come off as heavy-handed or overly preachy. Try saying the same about Crash.

Many shots incorporate heavy rock music, with montages and long shots of skateboarding. This is where the film shines as a whole. It is welcoming to see this human appearance, and Clark has shot long instances of events previously, mainly in his film Kids. Honestly, it seems as if Wassup Rockers plays like a watered down, neutered version of that film. I truly admired Kids for its consistency, bravery, and screenplay, which bled poignancy and sadness, but Wassup Rockers can't even come close to approaching the chords that film hit effortlessly. Clark has said a lot about the teenage youth in the past, but he doesn't use this effort to say much of anything provocative.

Starring: Jonathan Velasquez, Francisco Pedrasa, Milton Velasquez, and Yunior Usualdo Panameno. Directed by: Larry Clark.

I work with youth in Los Angeles, and Wassup Rockers is probably the most accurate non-documentary depiction I have ever seen of LA youth on film. Granted, the "acting" is choppy as it clearly jumps between the kids being themselves, and then saying scripted lines. But the characters are real. The most poignant point of the film was that murders are taking place in impoverished neighborhoods just a short bus ride away from the multi-million dollar homes and cushy lifestyles of Beverly Hills. The story was weak and lacked fluidity, but the reality of the characters made up for it twofold. With the exception of the "preppy" kids, who seemed a bit forced, the characters are all spot on for how LA kids today truly are. And the graphic descriptions of sexuality are not exaggerations. If you want to know exactly what the inner-city youth look like today, look no further than Wassup Rockers. This film is a must see for anyone who intends to work with kids, especially in an urban environment.

For the sake of your time, and mine, I'll skip the synopsis and get right to the point: Larry Clark's Wassup Rockers loses none of the Clark appeal, that his fans have grown to admire, in the switch to a softer film that Clark hopes will be more accepted by distributors than his previous movies. As most of Clark's fans know endeavors such as Ken Park, Kids and Bully have all focused around 'bad' kids, however, in Rockers, the kids are just trying to be themselves without getting harassed by their peers for not succumbing to the hip-hop element so present in their South Central neighbourhood. During the boys' eventful day in Beverly Hills, a parallel to The Warriors, a favorite of Clark's, can be clearly drawn. In short, this has been Larry Clark's best film to date. So great in fact, even my girlfriend who is not a fan of Larry Clark at all really enjoyed it.