The Smell of Us

As in most of Larry Clark's movies, there is no coherent story, no head or tail, it's all just anecdotical: flashes of young kids skateboarding, morosely hanging out, exchanging wannabe cool remarks, and sooner or later (mostly sooner) have sex. With much effort and good will I could discern some fragments that seemed to hint at a vague side-storyline, a guy in love with a friend who isn't interested, and he's apparently unable to cope with that. After 85 minutes that's it, the end.

This movie gives an extremely cynical view on young people. In Larry Clark's universe these teens are all self-absorbed and narcissistic, money-hungry, totally void of empathy and obsessed with sex. The few adults in the movie by the way are pictured with equal disdain, either hopeless drunks or demented lechers (mostly both).

I suppose Clark has a purpose with this, but if so, I missed it. The lack of a serious narrative, as well as a cast of only unsympathetic characters, make it very hard to get involved or even to get into the tiniest flow with the goings-on. You just sigh and search for the FF-button by every new nude and sex scene. I'm only guessing, but could it be that Clark is essentially a misanthropist by nature? Or just hates teens? If so, his movies do a great job.

I watched all Larry Clark 's movies. My favorite is Another Day in Paradise. So not much surprise when I saw this one. It was as expected. If you don't already like or know Larry's work you'd better not watch it. But note that there is not really an end : the reason is the main star Lukas Ionesco left before the end. He said in an interview that L. Clark used him and basically freaked out, fired before the end many of the kids and acted very "strangely". To the point that the mother of Lukas called Larry a pedophile in an interview. When asked about his thoughts about that Lukas admits that's too much though if he meet L. Clark again all he would have to say to him would be : F**** You... Concerning some reviews about "what a waste of money", just know that the film was funded at almost 100% by french tax payers therefore there is no need for commercial exploitation for that movie.

Nothing new from Larry Clark.

The lives and times of a few young skateboarders in Paris. However, their lives consist entirely of skateboarding, getting high and having sex with strangers, sometimes for money...

If you know Larry Clark's work, you'll know he generally likes making movies about young people, with a sleazy angle to it all. This was fine in Kids, which showed the emptiness of their lives, the harmful effects of their actions and how the cycle repeats itself in later generations. Bully was good too, as it had a crime- centred grittiness to it.

However, everything else he has made just uses the Kids formula over and over again. Young people, being depraved.

The Smell of Us certainly follows that formula, to the point that it should be called "Kids in Paris". Nothing new, and doesn't have the profundity that Kids has. It's pretty much sleaze and depravity for shock value sake.

Avoid.

The Smell of Us, although sounding like a good film in its festival write up is in fact the worse and hardest things I've ever had to watch.

The film is void of narrative or character development and in its place is scene after scene of vulgarity passed of as artistic.

The Smell Of Us, made be questions the entire notion of film as a medium.

Do yourself a favor and on the night you were planning on seeing this film, do something more enjoyable and less harmful to your psych instead, like punching yourself in the face. or sitting alone in a dark room.

not only a bad film, but a bad moment in human history.

Larry Clark, as many have said before, is a divisive filmmaker and doesn't make art to please people, he has never done, he makes it to show what someone else wouldn't.

Which a reasonably respectable goal I would have thought. Now when that includes the interesting and "self destructive" life's of skateboarders in Paris this ethos I believe works well. It's a subject probably fairly niche (I don't know I'm not sure how big skating is in Pairs) but either way he's bringing something "new" to the table.

I was also surprised at how well incorporated the themes of social media and attitudes to filming sex and the care in protraying youth views of sex and sexual situations (not something Clark is unfamiliar with you alright we'll give him it anyway).

Where I feel it falls short is mainly routed in its lack of character development or any form of change. It's fine to have a "no real plot", "stuff happens" film but even the most void of plot movies have some over arching idea to hold it together and push the characters, even a little, through their lives. It's easy to criticise this and for someone to say "well that's the point" and it's like yeah but you need something more. Just a little.... Please Larry. Otherwise all the nicely shot scenes and interesting themes will be for nothing and whatever message you're trying to portray will be lost.

The obvious comparison is Larry's own film "Kids" which has little structure but has one over arching idea of AIDS to tie it together and made it engaging. Or Marfa Girl had the threat of the border control guy and the threat of being found out doing dodgy stuff I dunno.

Larry Clark has all the skills and interest to do something genuinely powerful. He can show all the "realism" he wants, all the hardcore sex, but without anything to truly make us care, beyond it being "real", then I find it hard to believe people will take it on as well as Larry would hope.