Day: March 19, 2021

Were You a Kid in the 80s? Kid 90 Might Be Your Deal.

Part of the poster for the film Kid 90, showing 90s teen stars.

Kid 90

?Directed by Soleil Moon Frye?

The review:

A slight documentary, and your interest will vary depending on your exposure to the kid actors who populated your 80s and 90s television and movie screens* and how interested you are in learning about that transition from being a kid actor to an adult. Because Soleil Moon Frye has hours of VHS video and cassette tapes, plus her copious journals, we get at-home glimpses of a bunch of child stars that you may or may not have had crushes on.** There are a lot of scenes that depict drug use,*** and Frye’s eye is constantly turning toward another yet another boy**** while letting us in on some negative experiences.*****

The verdict: Good

(If you were a teenager in the 80s and 90s.)

Cost: Disney+ Hulu bundle monthly charge ($12.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

  • Kids
  • Dazed and Confused
  • A bunch of 80s television shows

Further sentences:

*I watched Soleil Moon Frye in Punky Brewster on prime time network television, so that’s exactly me.
**And then you get to see some of them as they look now. Back in 1990, my heart tripped over Balthazar Getty in Young Guns II. Now, he looks like a youthful middle-aged man.
***So much so that it felt cliched.
****If I had captured my teenage years with a video camera, the result would have been the same.
*****There’s a sexual assault recorded in her journals that wasn’t in the forefront of her memory. Her first sexual experience she seems happy with, though the age difference had me squirming.

Questions:

Was this navel gazing or interesting insight into a unique experience?
What would your video camera have captured in your teenage years?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Soleil Moon Frye spent four years going through footage she had shot, diaries, and voicemails from when she was a teenager in the 1990s.

Other reviews of Kid 90:

Orange background with a white frame. Text: I think it's fascinating to be able to go back and have a true chronological blueprint of what it was like to grow up as a teenager in the 90's. —Kid 90. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Ben Is Back: Julia Roberts Is The Mom You Want on Your Side

Courtney B. Vance, Lucas Hedges, and Julia Roberts in Ben Is Back.

Ben Is Back

?Directed by Peter Hedges?
?Written by Peter Hedges?

The review:

This is a great movie to add to your Christmas-But-Not-Feeling-It list* as Julia Roberts is a fabulous steely mom character and Lucas Hedges does well while withering under his family’s appraising eye.** It’s not a film that’s reinventing film as we know it, but it’s a solid story of one family drama. Courtney B. Vance is excellent as the stepfather trying to make the best decisions.

The verdict: Good

Cost: Disney+ Hulu bundle monthly charge ($12.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*You know, it’s Christmas time, but things aren’t exactly warm and cheery.
**They are sizing him up for good reason as this is the second 2018 movie to deal with the parent-child relationship when the child’s drug use has become drug abuse.

Questions:

  • Is there a point where you think Julia Roberts should have made a different decision?
  • What do you suppose happened after the final scene?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

When Peter Hedges was developing the film he had no intention of casting his son Lucas Hedges in the titular role, and had already created a shortlist of other actors he was considering. It was Julia Roberts who, after seeing the younger Hedges in Manchester by the Sea (2016), insisted he be cast.

Other reviews of Ben Is Back:

Orange background with a white frame. Text: You don't know what you're doing. I'm not worth it. —Ben is Back. Read the three sentence movie review at 3SMReviews.com