madunclehugh ***CONTAINS Spoilers*** This film was very disappointing; it started of with a bratty 12-year old boy and his brattiness is completely explained by all those who surround him. One hopes that he will be redeemed by the end of the film somehow - but this does not happen and neither he nor anyone else comes out with nicely at all. It concerns me that neither his mother or anyone else was worried to see a 12-year old lose his virginity to a "purchased" bimbo and then moving on to alcohol and drugs (well he was smoking what looked to be a joint near the end). It didn't help that the boy star was obviously not 12 but probably more like 15 or 16 and was far more aware of things than a 12-year old should have been. It would have been better if there had been a good resolution at the end with Taylor becoming more personable and NOT still on the downward track to self destruction which he obviously was....

Ed Cohen 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!

ilpintl 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".

parsons_40 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.