Childstar

Don Mckellar is a comic genius, as long as dry wit with an accent is your kind of laugh-a-thon. It is mine, so I loved this movie.

Mckellar plays an endearing character who has just divorced the love of his life, for whom he has shot an independent film which has no backing as his on film love letter equates romantic love to ADHD images erratically juxtaposed against the nature. Since he has to put peanut butter on his bread, he begins working as a driver for a film being shot in his hometown. Thus, Mckellar's character meets 12 year old Taylor Bradford Burns, a teenage star whose fame is hanging on his ability to maintain "adorableness as a child" and thus, his film company and agents are pushing him to do another film whether it's worth doing or not (which is certainly debatable) before his "voice changes".

Jennifer Jason Leigh is exquisite as always in her cooler than ever way, as the mother of the child. She's just looking to "take care of Taylor" the best way she knows how - which includes getting him the largest salary possible, living in the poshest house the studio will foot the bill for, and ensuring that he has "a male role model" by turning her responsibilities over to the first available and passably attractive guy she runs into --- who is of course, our newbie driver.

It's a fun movie. Taylor Bradford Burns is played by a young man who is straddling the line between youth and a teenager with more experience than anyone under 18 should have. Worth renting. Enjoy it with popcorn.

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.

Famous 12 year old TV star Taylor Brandon Burns arrives in Toronto with his manager mom Suzanne Burnbaum (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to do a big budget bombastic movie. Rick Shiller (Don McKellar) is the struggling indie filmmaker turned reluctant driver. Taylor is under tremendous pressure struggling to grow up in a grown up world. Suzanne is useless and having a fling with Rick. When Taylor goes missing with struggling actress Natalie, Rick has to go find him.

This actually got interesting. The most interesting is Taylor running away with Natalie. The movie needs to be about that. The other parts should be trimmed back. McKellar should really get out of the way of his own movie. It should not be his movie. It should be about the kid. It's risky to bet the whole project on a child actor but this kid has the skills to pull it off.

The moviemaking within the movie has one great section with Taylor in the fake cockpit. The fake CGI is a big mistake. The movie does not need it and it looks really fake. The only way to save that is to make sure that the audience knows the footage is rudimentary test footage. The main problem with that is the audience is unlikely to be smart enough to get it. All in all, I really like the kid's performance and his struggles.

Disappointing follow-up to McKellar's sublime "Last Night" (one of my favorite films of all time) and "Red Violin", this film is about an obnoxious child actor in the mold of Haley Joel Osment, his equally obnoxious stage mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and the hapless indie filmmaker-turned-chauffeur (McKellar) who is assigned to baby-sit them. Minor hilarity ensues from the cross-border (US/Canadian) cultural confrontations and the underage star's affectation of adult nonchalance and knowledge, but not enough to rescue the film, or the viewer. I cannot imagine what possessed the wondrously gifted McKellar to consider such a banal theme. Please regard this as my personal plea to Don McKellar to return to writing and making films of the caliber of "32 Short Films about Glen Gould", "Last Night", and Red Violin".

I saw this movie Sunday morning (and i am not a morning person) at the Toronto film festival, and I must say, it was not what I expected. First of all, it was funnier than the premise would lead you to believe. Secondly, it was actually artfully done. And thirdly, it was very different from the average slow Canadian film. Did I like the film? Yes, very much. It was more of Don McKellar's strange brand of humor, like the kind he used on Twitch City (his TV show) but faster, and maybe a little more biting. In fact, the movie was so fast and multi-layered that I'd like to see it again, soon. Overall I think this was a really entertaining film, and I would highly recommend it -- especially to those who want proof that Canadian movies can be funny, and fast, and exciting, and still smart.