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One of my favorite films of 2006, Wassup Rockers is the most mature and adept application of Larry Clark's sensibilities, talents, and world view to date.
His movies have always seriously divided people, and even though I overall appreciate his filmography, I sometimes waver as to what I think of exactly how talented, skilled, or useful this guy is. For me, Wassup Rockers ended the debate. On Clark's part, the movie shows restraint (regarding the teen sex), a more conventional approach to story-plotting, and some real heart. It's clear to me now that Clark has refined his filmmaking chops to the point where he can be considered a serious voice in independent cinema, and has definitely surpassed the common criticism that he is little more than a child pornographer, a pervert, and a dirty old man. I'd recommend the film to pretty much any moviefan, even those who have made it their business to campaign against him and his controversial body of work.
If there's one thing even his harshes critics can't accuse him of, it's not doing his research. When Larry Clark's artistic career began as a photographer of the aimless, travelling, drug-addicted youth, it sprung naturally out of his lifestyle at the time, namely being one of them. He spent years in New York, hanging out with the skater kids, which is where he met many of the "actors" he would use in his debut, Kids, written by Harmony Korine, another skater kid he met on the streets. From what I understand, he acted as a sort of peer/guaridian for these essentially rootless teens. And now, ten years later, he does the same with the next generation of unsupervised (to the say the least) teen skaters on the opposite coast.
Wassup Rockers centers around a group of Latino teenaged boys living in South Central. They are not agressive, and no drug use is shown in the film. They are not out looking to prey on innocent girls, murder rival peers, or even steal to earn a dishonest living, as is the case with the teens Clark portrays in previous works (Kids, Bully, Another Day in Paradise) These are just kids, interested in having fun, playing in a rock band, skateboarding, being left alone, all adding up to essentially living the life kids should be living.
Their residence doesn't exactly permit a carefree youth lifestyle, as they are terrorized by various sorts of aggressive, territorial rivals. The way they dress, wear their hair (long), skateboard, and play punk music doesn't exactly fit in to their South Central neighborhood, and one day they spontaneously decide to bus into Beverly Hills, to escape their hometown for just one day, and to check out the skateboarding options there.
By the way, this is one of the first times I've seen a skateboarding movie in which there are far more shots of failed attempts at tricks, then glamorous landings.
However, they soon find out that their lifestyle choices being met with opposition in South Central is matched by the unwelcoming attitude of the Beverly Hills atmosphere to their dark skin, conspicuously foreign tongues, and just the simple fact that they aren't from there, and hence don't belong there.
What might have become an obvious study of class, race, or whatever in the hands of a more conventional director suddenly takes a sharp turn into the fantastical. I don't want to give away the details of the plot, because it is halfway through the film where it really goes in a welcomed new direction for Larry Clark. I will just say that our heroes find themselves in a situation where they have overstepped their boundaries and overstayed their welcome in this paradise filled with clean concrete, rich white girls inhabiting huge mansions, and backyard parties chock full of clueless (and thus, accepting) hollywood types. They are on the run, and must find their way back to their home in South Central. Clark himself says he modeled this portion of the film after The Warriors, and he completely does justice to the feeling of that movie. It plays like an epic, almost mythological chase movie.
It is in that change in mood where Larry Clark really departs from his usual formula. The movie starts out like a "Kids"-esque study of another group of alienated kids, but quickly turns into the kind of action movie these kids might fantasize being in themselves. Instead of focusing on the gritty depressive naturalistic reality, like Clark usually does, he gives the kids exactly the escape they yearn for by busing into Beverly Hills in the first place. The Warriors is probably the kind of movie Clark wished he lived in as a youth, and he makes that fantasy a reality for his "actors" here.
It isn't that he ignores the issues of race and class that the set-up implies, but that he respects us and his subjects enough not to simplify them by preaching. This is not a film about solutions, or even attempted solutions. It is about yearning, the divide between what should be and what is, and the little things that can be done to connect that day to day.
He got to know these kids in the same way he did back when he first started making movies. He hung out with them for years, getting to them, becoming a part of their lives, and it really shows. The fact that these kids know and trust Clark creates the sort of candor we've come to expect from all of his underage performances.
Another strength was the lack of any sort of graphic sex, which is what he's pretty much built his career on (at least, according to some). It creates a much more innocent feeling than is usually the case in his films, and even though these kids are far from pure, they should be able to inhabit a universe of purity at this young age, even if it is just pretending to escape from Beverly Hills in a movie....
Anyways, I fear I'm going to start to ramble and bore, or just repeat myself. There's much more I'd love to say about this movie, but first I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on it. Larry Clark has given us a real treat with this, and for the first time I feel like I really understand what he has been building with his body of work. Another gift from the mage who gave us Chloe Sevigny.....
