Childstar

I loved McKeller's other film "Last Night". Unfortunately, this lame effort is uninspired. We've seen it all before and better. The film doesn't know what it wants to be - is it a comedy, a morality play about fame and the young, is it about parents living through their children, is it about manipulation? The result is a film that doesn't know what it wants to be and in turn, cannot find an audience. Like so many Canadian films, it's just not audience friendly and there is nothing in this film to get anyone but McKeller fans out to watch it. The film just unraveled (badly) and never went anywhere and then needed a long speech at the end to explain a plot we all stop caring about a long way back. The cinematography was excellent but it was wasted in this effort. McKeller can do better and has. Hopefully he can put this failure behind him.

How much I enjoyed this film surprised me. (I saw it at the Philadelphia Film Festival the day after I saw "Checking Out" with Peter Falk. So—that's saying a lot.)

"Childstar" is a droll send-up of fawning over child stars in our culture, and of being a person low on the film industry totem pole. There is a lot of clever, well-produced stuff in this film. My only negative comment is that too much seems to have been directly lifted from an episode of The Nanny, "When You Pish Upon a Star."

I will go to see any film with Jennifer Jason Leigh. Her arc seems to be like that of Geneviève Bujold before her. Leigh seems to have managed to be in a lower proportion of turkeys than Bujold, so far. Her performance this time worked for me.

Likewise the performance of Don McKellar in his own film was just fine. More power to him!

I just couldn't get into this. Don McKellar, who I've never heard of before, just looked like he was doing an impersonation of Peter Sellers. His deadpan approach was a leaden hand over the whole film. Every line he delivered fell flat on the ground, as in a vacuum. There was something eerily compelling about him though, I couldn't take my eyes off him - or maybe it was just that cardigan he wore under his jacket the whole time.

The storyline might have not invited criticism were it not for the fact that we were subjected to two excruciating moral lessons at the end (on parentalism and on the childstar issue). Mmm, thanks, I so need to be preached at - NOT.

Unfortunately, Taylor Brandon Burns wasdislikable even when he wasn't supposed to be, and his blonde girlfriend character was just a cardboard cut-out. How were we supposed to care?

Well, we were all probably there looking for laughs, not philosophy. Problem is the laughs just weren't there. It was all vaguely depressing.

THis movie was comic genius, and is my favorite Canadian movie ever, Finally someone has made a film that manages to be thoughtful and funny at the same time. All of my friends loved it too, though some of them thought the ending was a bit incomplete. I disagree! It was fun, and touching, and never schlocky or stupid. And Don McKellar is hilarious! In fact, most of the actors were great, including the young boy (I forget his name) who plays the kid. I guess, as a Canadian, the film makes more sense. I hope Don Mckellar keeps making strange films like this and Last Night (his first one) because no one else is doing anything this interesting AND accessible, with the possible exception of Guy Maddin's last movie.

I just watched this for the first time on my cable companies free On-Demand. I would say, interesting...complicated...disjointed...but demanding a 2nd view. Jennifer Jason Leigh is somewhat under-stated in this, and the boy is believable at times, totally not at other times. Questions come up at the end of almost every scene, so that's why I probably will view this again. But, can't help feeling I'm watching a "E-True Hollywood Story" about "Family Ties" or "Growing Pains" (what with Alan Thicke in this) at times it feels like an entertainment documentary, with some added drama that I won't "spoil". The fact that this was filmed in Canada is kind of parody of itself in that they make fun of that fact, but yet are also filming in Canada. Ironic.