Best movie of this year hands down!

Touches You

Redundant and unnecessary.

Absolutely Fantastic

Is probably something that mr. Larry Clark asked his assistant when he was on set to start film this, and seemingly they never found it and had to make up something on the spot.'Bully (2001)' was a great movie, directed by him but after that he hasn't done anything remotely as good... 'Wassup Rockers (2005)' despite poor acting was still decent because it had at least somewhat of a plot where as this does not and seem to aimlessly just go to events that lead to teenagers getting naked.Now granted, I don't believe Larry Clark has done a movie where teenagers don't get naked but really with this one I seriously started to wonder if he did this film for the sole reason of getting off on the nude teens with multiple crotch-shots (male and female)...It sure couldn't be because he thought he had a good story to tell.One of the characters says 'if people f'd more there would be no war. Less killing, less rape, you know what I mean?'. The character has some similarities to Larry Clark (it's an artist who likes to paint guys genitals, much like Clark himself is an artist who likes to film them) so that seems like a way for Clark to justify his fascination with teenagers sex lives, and possibly a (poor) attempt at giving some depth into a hollow movie.A sequel is listed for being in the making for next year, I don't see how they expect to make any money off of that, but maybe Clark doesn't care and he just want to film some more naked teenagers.There was a time when he was seen as a talented director who was slightly perverted, but it's quickly turning to him being seen as a perverted director who's slightly talented instead.I think he need to do a full 360 if he want to turn that around, maybe make a movie about adults instead or if the teenage thing have to continue let them keep their clothes on and focus on a good story instead, and maybe a cast that have acting experience.

Larry Clark the director of this flick became notorious for a few reasons. He is known to use non-actors in his flick. For most parts he did. He just picked up teenagers from the street and let them act in his flicks. But what the teenagers had to do was shocking for some. His first flick Kids (1995) made in full grunge bloom he let kids under-aged smoke cigarettes. It shocked the world back then but it put his name on the map. From there on he made the still unreleased flick in the US, Ken Park (2002). Again teenager were picked from the street to perform sexual acts on-camera. Teenage Caveman (2002) was another perfect example. Always the theme in his flicks are youth skating around and bore themselves a lot. It shows in this picture that not all is the American dream. This flick takes place on borderland. You know what you will get, the typical Romeo And Juliette situations. But here Larry Clark goes a bit further. Were he wasn't afraid to show naked breasts from teenagers (always above 18) here in Marfa Girl I was surprised that they go all the way this time with even boner shots. It's all just on the edge of getting in trouble as filmmaker but he still does it and was never sentenced or whatsoever. Of course the border patrol has the annoying cop who never got laid with the ones crossing the border and he's out to catch some chica available for his needs. You can see it coming that it turns out wrong. It's just a depressive flick were teenagers are doing it with each other because there's nothing else to do...This isn't a flick for everybody due a lot of blah blah going on and some music being made by the teenagers also going on for ever and of course the nudity shown. Were Ken Park did had a good story here it hasn't. But it's out there if you want to see were Larry is famous for. Gore 0/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 0/5 Story 0/5 Comedy 0/5

It's hard to believe that it was seven long years between the release of Larry Clark's Wassup Rockers and Marfa Girl. Clark's themes of destructive adolescent behavior, broken families, and teenage angst and sex are now more prominent than ever, and one would assume that Clark would be toying with every possible convention for the material in present times, when censorship restrictions is now far more liberal than it ever has been. However, Clark claims there is still apprehension towards his kind of material from "crooked Hollywood distributors," which is why he made the decision to release Marfa Girl on his website, with no plans of it ever coming to DVD or being released in theaters.It's sad when a man of Clark's caliber must resort to the broad and indistinguishable realm of online distribution to get his films seen but maybe that's for the better. He is not limited by any means, is his own boss, and still possesses the freedom to make the movies he wants to make. As a writer, I can respect that immensely. His film Marfa Girl could mistakenly be called a "return to form" for Clark, due to his lengthy absence, but just by watching the film you know he hasn't left. His last feature Wassup Rockers, however, felt nothing as much as a watered-down depiction of what Clark does best, which is handle the aforementioned themes.Marfa Girl concerns the town of Marfa, Texas, which is near the border of the United States and Mexico. The town is as sleepy as can be, often possessing a dreamy quality with its wide open spaces, soft blue skies, and frequently humble, muted colors. It concerns a number of people living in this town, mostly working class characters, one of whom is a teenager named Adam (Adam Mediano), a sixteen-year-old who is approaching his seventeenth birthday in a matter of days. He is beginning to become sexually curious, hoping to get lucky with his sixteen-year-old girlfriend Inez (Mercedes Maxwell), who he trusts completely, but also being tempted with sex from numerous other people, including his twentysomething neighbor.The titular character is played by Drake Burnette, a local artist who also looks to have sex with Adam. The film's powerhouse scene comes when Adam and her talk about sex beginning when Adam is in the bathtub and continues when the two walk out in public. The scene touches on every topic of sex, from pleasing a woman sexually to elaborating on the unfair double-standard of when a man or a woman have many sexual partners. It wasn't until I saw this scene did I recall how much I missed Clark's naturalistic conversations and his characters' curiosity and interest in sex. Clark doesn't stray from making the dialogs explicit as well, with both characters going into intricate detail about the mysterious ways of a woman's clitoris.A subplot involves Tom (Jeremy St. James), a lowly, misogynistic border patrol agent who sets his sights on Adam, Adam's mother (Mary Farley), along with Inez. St. James does great work here as a first-time actor, effectively creating an unsettling atmosphere whenever he steps on screen. His character Tom is an unpredictable one, with an early scene with him taking place at a restaurant where he remarks to a waitress about how her feet wouldn't hurt if she didn't have such gigantic breasts. Tom is a scummy character, doing a thankless job to boot. It isn't until Burnette's mysterious character strikes a conversation with two of Tom's Mexican coworkers, questioning if they feel guilty in any way for arresting their own people. The scene, which takes place inside an abandoned warehouse, is equally tense and unsettling, perhaps providing subtle commentary about how every encounter, no matter how trivial or meaningless, with the border patrol is in some way.Despite the seven year gap, Clark stills seems to be interested in the Latino, "skater-punk" lifestyle. Frequent scenes involve some sort of skateboarding, gathering, or languorously wandering the streets of Marfa. Cinematographer David Newbert knows how to capture the look and appeal of a sleepy town, tucked away down in Texas. The dreaminess of the film's aesthetic is something that I can't easily shake, similar to the gritty and dirty aesthetic utilized in Clark's previous films.Clark's directorial debut is Kids, which is not only one of the most powerful debut films I have yet to see but one of the most powerful films that I have yet to see. Its honest depiction of teenagers and the degradation of values is something scarcely brought up but brilliantly handled overall, making for an exceptional debut film. He went on to direct Bully, a film showing murder for the sick, sadistic crime that it is, and not cheaply portraying or exploiting its subject for something to laugh at or for cheap shock. Marfa Girl tackles the familiar themes of Clark's earlier works, and while that could easily be turned into a criticism rather than a strength (Clark is seventy and maybe should look into other themes), seeing something like this particular film makes me glad to have him back and know that he won't be limited in his approach any longer.Starring: Adam Mediano, Mercedes Maxwell, Drake Burnette, Jeremy St. James, and Mary Farley. Directed by: Larry Clark.

Six years is a long hiatus, especially since Larry Clark was popping movies out almost annually for a while. After that much of a break, you'd expect a filmmaker to come back with something new, engaged with different subjects. But then again, this is Larry Clark we're talking about. All of his work is a variation on a theme. "Marfa Girl" takes a few new turns even if it's firmly rooted in the director's obsessions.The title is somewhat misleading. Yeah, the movie is set in Marfa, Texas. That's not the misleading part. Instead, the movie is actually about a boy, not a girl. Fifteen year old Adam, about to turn sixteen, is the protagonist. He skates, is in a band, occasionally enjoys a pot cigarette, is friends with a sexually liberated young mother, and is currently trying to get into his girlfriend's pants. His mom rehabilitates parrots and is heavily involved in the local spiritualist and art scene. She's friends with a twenty-something artist, the titular Marfa Girl, a young lady who believes in free love and equality of genders. Connecting all the story threads is Tom, a border patrol cop with sadomasochistic fantasies, misogynistic tendencies, and an unhealthy obsession with Adam and his mom."Marfa Girl" is edgier then "Wassup Rockers" but is still more gentle then the majority of the director's films. As you'd expect, the film is loosely plotted, rolling from one encounter to another. The pacing is relaxed, instead of belabored. Once again, Clark has successfully put us into these kids' lives. There's not much of a score and what is there is odd, chiptune music. The film is named after its setting because Marfa is a character onto itself. It's clear that the odd mixture of artists, spiritualists, disaffected kids, and border patrol cops that makes up the town was Clark's main inspiration. After watching the film, you feel like you know what a day in the sleepy town must feel like.As is expected with Clark by this point, among the teenage sex scenes, drugs, and violence, are genuinely touching or intriguing moments. An early moment, when Adam's mom talks with a friend about loosing pets and reincarnation, really impressed me. Though the movie seems to implicitly suggest that the whole conversation is ridiculous, the emotion the moment sums up is true. Another stand-out moment is Adam and the Marfa Girl's discussion about sexism and double standards. This leads to an encounter with two Mexican border patrol cops, starting a heated conversation. Clark continues to do intimate conversation well. The Girl has a revealing conversation with the mellower of the two cops, about his military history. An earlier date with another artist is charmingly awkward. Even the villainous Tom gets a revealing monologue near the end. Surprisingly, the sex scenes, only a few of which involve teenagers, have a gentle, romantic tone to them, making this, perhaps, Clark's first legitimately erotic film.Adam is your standard Clark protagonist: Obsessed with sex with no clear direction in life. His sweet relationship with his Mom makes him different though. Adam Mediano has a natural charisma as an actor and it's not impossible to see him going on to a real acting career. Drake Burnette as the titular character does very well, being spunky and lovable. She can't make all her heavy dialogue work but the actress is still likable. I didn't care for what happens to her in the last act though. That felt unnecessary. I especially liked Indigo Rael as Adam's friend Donna. She's a complex character, a mother, a teen, and sexually open. Mary Farley is also strong as Adam's mom.Tom is the most fascinating character in the film. He's a total creep. Aside from needlessly harassing Adam, he makes sexist remarks to a young waitress, tricks a fast food clerk into a date that transforms into a possible sexual assault, and shows Adam's mom disturbing "blue waffle" pictures. For most of the film, he comes off as a thinly developed villain. His eventual acts of violence and sexual assault aren't surprising. Frankly, his admittance of getting turned on by violence is awkwardly presented and Clark falling back on shock value and boners. However, the character's monologue, were he discusses his past and his relationship with his father, are oddly powerful. Jeremy St. James actually gives a fantastic performance, making Tom an ugly creep but also, oddly easy to watch.The movie concludes with violence. You could say this is lazy. However, the middle section of the movie, which includes a long drug trip in a school gym, drags on. The whole movie sets up this conflict between Adam and Tom. The ending is a fine pay-off to this. The resolution puts a nice emotional bow on the story.So "Marfa Girl" is about half/half. It's a lot of the same stuff you'd expect from the director by now. Its dreamy tone is sometimes entrancing, sometimes boring. The script is unbalanced between captivating character study and directionless location piece. I both like the town and have no desire to ever visit it. All things considered, it's what I would expect from the director at this point in his career.Clark released the movie independently as a streaming rental through his website, with no intention of ever releasing it to theaters or home video. He hopes to reach the kids this way. Maybe he will. I don't know what young people will think out of "Marfa Girl." It won't change detractors mind and it could potentially either surprise or bore Clark defenders. Despite it's issues, it's still the filmmaker's best work in years.