DVD Talk Forum - Larry Clark's WASSUP ROCKERS is out on DVD

I was at the World Premiere with Clark. I have to say that if you're a big fan of his previous works, you may not like this at all. To be honest, I didn't really like it that much, but I understand what he did and why he did it. After the problems he had with Ken Park and it's dist., it seems he tried to make a film that could be seen by a more commercial audience. Is that bad? No! The problem however is one of the reason I liked Clark's films was it pushed the boundries, good or bad and offered a blunt look at teenagers without the pretty linning. I didn't find this in Wassup. Clark mentioned after the film that a lot of companies seemed to have (in my own words) "blacklisted" him, or were affraid to back his films due to his nature. He then introduced someone who decided to back him, and this film. It was almost like (again, my own words) this was his last chance to show he could produce something of this nature.

I enjoyed KIDS and Bully and liked Ken Park. Wassup was decent, but I'd say it was the weakest of the four. There were "slapstick" moments that made my eyes roll. I didn't expect such an attempt at laughter. The acting was also easily the worst of the lot as well, but he told us he used street kids for the film, no actors.

All that being said, if you've seen his other films you may want to see this anyhow. I'll probobly buy this eventually to keep my collection complete, but I'm in no rush like I was Ken Park DVD after I saw that at the TIFF.

I had wrote a pretty long comment on IMDB after seeing Wassup. It's actually been 1 year since I've seen it, so maybe that's a better idea of what I felt at the time.