Kenny & Company

This film is a must see for anyone who was around 10-15 years old in 1976. Kenny and Co. doesn't miss a trick in depicting the life of a seventh-grader, his friends and enemies. Prank phone calls, over-sized school bullies, Halloween hijinks and fickle first loves, it's all here.

The director unknowingly created a time capsule of such realism that Kenny is more enjoyable now than it ever was when it was made. Best of all it doesn't try to ram some big morality trip down your throat. It just documents. And unlike in "Stand by Me," the kids actually act like kids not philosophers. If there's any point at all to the story it's that the genius of kids is their unique ability to survive the banality and meanness of existence through a combination of devilish humor and harmless civil unrest.

I started breaking this film out at parties and now I get requests for it. Kenny and Co. is better the second and third times.

I was one of the few people who saw this film in its original run in the theater in Orlando in 1976 when I was 9 years old. I went with my cousins while visiting from Georgia. And although this is a film about kids in a California suburb, and I grew up in a textile mill town in the Deep South, this movie is still a more accurate portrayal of what my life was like back then than anything else I've ever seen or read.

Now let's be clear, this was a very low-budget film. I think it was made for something like $130,000. Some of the roles, including Kenny, were not performed by professional actors. There are continuity errors and all the other problems you expect with low-budget films. And there are elements that are typical of the 1970s that wouldn't make it onto a screen today, like when Doug tells Kenny what his big brother says about girls. But nevertheless, it's accurate to that time period and quite poignant.

I rediscovered this film when I found out that another of my favorite movies from my youth, Phantasm, was also a Coscarelli film and featured many of the same actors. I got the DVD with commentary and it really took me back! Eventually I also found a DVD of Coscarelli's first movie, "Jim, the World's Greatest".

"Kenny & Co." doesn't really have a narrative arc - it's more a slice of life. But when you're at that age, that's how life seems to you anyway, just a sequence of events that you have to deal with as they come. So to me, that just makes the film more accurate to its subject.

I really don't know if kids today could enjoy this film, or even understand it. The world was so different then before cell phones and the Internet and CGI and the need for constant spectacle. But if you're a guy in your 50s in 2019, I promise this will take you back! Coscarelli really gets it right. I can see why the movie had a hard time finding its audience back then. It's not really a "kids' movie" at all. Oddly enough, it seems to have been made for people like me today, guys who lived through that as boys and who are looking back now as adults. I'm really glad I got to see it with my cousins when it came out. And very glad that it's on DVD, especially with the commentary track, so that I can enjoy it again and reflect. It's like a time capsule for me and will always have a special place in my heart.

I saw this movie on HBO a couple of years after its release and really related to the characters (being 13 at the time). It's a time capsule. Anyone considering making a movie set in the 70s should view this film to garner some ideas for period detail.

Imagine my surprise when the gang from Kenny and Company, minus Kenny, turned up in "Phantasm"!

Update - 11/2006: Saw it again on DVD after 26 years and it held up well. I was impressed with Fred Myrow's music and I really enjoyed the 360 degree shot of the vet's office waiting room when they took Bob in for the final appointment. The combination of those two elements, the music and the touching content of that scene, provided the "emotional glue" (to borrow a Coscarelli phrase) of the film for me. Nobody needed to cry; the director allowed us to connect the emotional dots. Brilliant.

If I ever make a film, I hope its half as good as this one.

I vividly remember seeing Kenny & Co in the movie theater where I grew up in Pomona, CA. I would have been about 7. The movie matches my recollection of how I grew up as a kid in 1970's Southern California. Skateboards....Kay Bee toy stores....smoggy days...hanging out all day and coming home when the street lights came on. As in the movie, blonde kids were cooler...your friend's parents never were. There is one scene that I remember being particularly sad...and as an adult, it's still sad! Decent acting from a bunch of amateur actors just doing what kids do. This movie is so much better than the terrible trailer - if you were a kid from the 1970s, it's a must see and fun trip.

The Genre of movies intended for viewers age 10-14 tend to be either crass exploitation or idiotic morality tales. Kenny and Co. is that rare gem of a film that transcends the limitations of it's genre.

There must have been a window in the mid '70's where it was possible to produce a "kid" movie with both heart and brain intact. The Bad News Bears (first film) is another example. In the era of Mortal Kombat and the latest Star Wars regurgitation, this well-written, fully realized, (and delightfully 'dated') work is a joy. Don Coscarelli, who went on to notoriety with the Phantasm B-Horror series, should be noted for this sensitive, aware, and charmingly non-condescending look at young malehood.

I am very interested in finding a copy of Kenny & CO. on tape, and I notice that one of the other posters on this board mentions having a copy. If you are willing to share, please contact

thanks and keep watching. jm