Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Seth_Rogue_One 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.

carter-drewj This movie drags human sexuality through a very filthy gutter.Once again Hollywood glorifies illegal aliens, demonizes border guards who try to stem the tide! This movie treats men, women and sex as if they were all on filthy euro heroin! A True piece of Hollywood Filth!Spanking seems to be a fetish with Mr. Clark, how many of You were spanked by Your junior high school Teacher? Every filthy dirty thought a teenager ever had is played out over a stark West Texas Landscape! An Ugly Film for Ugly Minded People!

sdp4462 *This review may contain a spoiler, so perhaps you do not want to read it before seeing the film, but I have kept this sufficiently vague, in my view.I have to comment on another reviewer who wrote that this film represents Larry Clark's disappointing and lackluster comeback film. I have not known any of Larry Clark's filmography. I do not believe I have seen a single one, so I was a bit surprised Mr. Clark had a comeback to make. Mr. Clark is foreign to me and the actors are also completely unknown, which has the added bonus of keeping production costs low, but seems to degrade the overall quality of the film. Sometimes I even felt as though the actors were searching for lines or emotions, but did not know where to look. Perhaps the director had stepped out for the moment.No doubt, I am equally foreign to this film. I considered stopping the film 5 or 10 minutes in because my initial reaction was one of bewilderment (why are these people in this film?) and one of disgust (why are these border patrol agents harassing a young, and why is a teacher, moments later, spanking him in a school room with a paddle fashioned out of wood). By foreign I felt as though I was in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, playing the role of Gregor Samsa. The world I see portrayed in Marfa Girl is totally foreign to me. It is a world with brutal quasi-police forces who prey upon the public. It is a place where all hope is lost and where people turn to spiritual healing for some substitute of courage and intellect. It's a world where the only place to find entertainment is apparently in a semi-abandoned apartment complex/RV park where teenagers are dancing dispassionately to music of a guitar strummer and a kid with an electronic sound board. More fascinating is why anyone would want to visit this southern border town. The young artist known as Marfa Girl (played by model Drake Burnette) mixes with the locals like oil to water when she suggests to one man that he should model nude for her sketches. I nearly laughed, but instead wondered why he didn't slap her coming on to a taken man in an ultra-conservative town in America.Admittedly, part of my foreign feeling toward this film lies in my lack of relativity to the main character, whose mother at one point reminds him that although lightly browned, he is "not a wetback." Admittedly, in my K-12 years I didn't fall into bed with older women/moms, I didn't roam aimlessly around my little middle-American town, and I didn't grow up in a place where I was treated as if I belonged to another species on another planet. Young people go through difficult times as adolescents; we get that. Young people do and say stupid things, and we get that as well. It's just that Clark does not quite bring this one home for me. Even at the end, I was still searching for something to cling to, but could not find it. Indeed, the reason for this review might very well be the fact that the film was so forgettable that I had to write down my thoughts lest I forget about it tomorrow.You might have wondered from where the film's title is derived. It turns out that the title is taken from the very real town in which the film is set, Marfa, Texas. As if the film had not turned me off the place, a review of Google Maps and Wikipedia resources suggests that it is a place on Earth that I am highly unlikely to ever find myself. No doubt, I am better off for steering clear, and you are better off for skipping this film.

richard_longman Larry Clark likes to make movies which shock. Particularly about teenagers. They f*ck and swear and sometimes kill (Bully). On the other hand, William Golding's Lord of the Flies is on the reading list in most English language high schools around the world. Nothing Larry Clark has done can outdo the horror of those kids on an island.Homo sapiens are a brutal and savage species, probably responsible for the elimination of Neanderthal man and since then we have sent thousands of species into extinction, from mammoths, to bison, to the dodo. If there's a bad animal around, we're it.Clark like Golding is busy with representing the what is, ripping off of your rose-coloured glasses and then stomping on them to boot. Yes, your girlfriend in high school betrayed you. Deliberately. And your son's girlfriend is probably betraying him now too. It's just what people do. Your wife probably cheated on you at least once or twice too. Go and read Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees: how they mate and how they stalk their neighbours and kill.Anyway back to Marfa Girl: it's the same unlikeable group of teenagers smoking up and screwing as we've seen in other Clark movies. This time it's on the US/Mexican border. There are some very dislikable adult border patrol officers and some slightly less dislikable promiscuous kids. It's a film about ideas and loyalties. There are some extended Socratian dialogues between kids and cops, cops and cops.Those ideas are played out through the bodies and lives of the Clark's kids. Unlike in a Rohmer film, ideas are not apart from human existence. Ideas have a real human price.Performances are convincing all round from mothers to daughters to cops. I really didn't like either Adam (Adam Mediano) or Marfa Girl (Drake Burnette). But that's not their job to make me like them. Their responsibility is to play their role convincingly and that they did.If you are looking to be uplifted or dream of a brighter tomorrow, no Larry Clark film is for you. If you are looking to take a cold hard look at today's passage from childhood to adulthood, Larry Clark is your man.I'm not sure I liked Marfa Girl, but I respect the craft. Anyone concerned with border issues will find a lot to think about. There's a tall pile of DVD's of films waiting more important to me than Marfa Girl. While I respect Larry Clark's craft (I was lucky enough to see a premiere of Bully at TIFF with Clark in attendance in 2001), one of the reasons I am among the first to watch and buy is its direct online distribution. Direct digital distribution is the only future for independent film. Larry Clark is both wise and brave to choose exclusively online digital distribution with no cut to iTunes or any other of the conglomerates.It's an experiment worth supporting. If works the quality and the honesty of Marfa Girl are what direct distribution brings us, the future of independent film looks brighter than it has in over ten years.If you are on the fence, please give Larry Clark your support to send a clear signal to both independent film makers and to Hollywood. Give us something better than the sequels and focus grouped rubbish which commercial filmmaking has become and we'll pay for it.The online viewing experience was very easy. You pay via Paypal with no extended offer nonsense or other advertising and you get a login key which lets you see Marfa Girl in very good quality HD right away. Absolutely no problem playing it in the browser.