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I watched Kids today, and I can definitely see the roots of where he would subsequently go in his own directorial efforts (specifically groups of people encouraging/pressuring one or more members to engage in some form of unsafe or anti-social activity). After watching it, though, I felt like something was missing in comparison to works like Gummo or Trash Humpers. I think those films had an almost whimsical quality to them that came out of the combination of their general weirdness and shared embrace of tap dancing/vaudeville, whereas Kids seemed more consistently realistic and almost documentary (apart from the score).
Korrine didn't direct Kids, just wrote the script, which is why you don't get the weird mishmash of images and music and weirdness. Larry Clark was a much more grounded filmmaker. And also a seemingly grosser human being. For all the flack some people give Korrine for peddling exploitation, Korrine's love of outcasts and misfits makes it so they are almost always treated with empathy. Clark on the other hand, leers at his teenage cast members in a way that often feels as if it is objectifying them.
It's probably one element of what kept me from appreciating Kids for so long (and I've subsequently grown to like most of his movies, no matter how icky they end up making me feel)
