kid 90
As a teenager in the '90s, Soleil Moon Frye carried a video camera everywhere she went. She documented hundreds of hours of footage and then locked it away for over 20 years.
- Released: 2021-03-12
- Runtime: 71 minutes
- Genre: Documentaries
- Stars: Soleil Moon Frye, David Arquette, Stephen Dorff, Balthazar Getty, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Brian Austin Green, Tori Leonard, Heather McComb, Buzz Aldrin, Dana Ashbrook, Jeffrey Ballard, Jonathan Brandis, Marlon Brando, Adam Carolla, Leonardo DiCaprio, Corey Feldman, Sara Gilbert, Jenny Lewis, Sasha Jenson, Emmanuel Lewis, Mario López, Paul Newman, Justin Pierce, Charlie Sheen, Michael Rapaport, Jonathan Silverman, Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp
- Director: Soleil Moon Frye
Comments
- zureal-77671 - 4 July 2022
It's narcissitic, but you can't blame her. A warning to not let your kid become an actor.
It's a good (and quite engaging) study in to how a child actors life can make them self-centered and narcissistic. Enough so to make a documentary about themselves and then a desire to share extremely personal details with the world.
However...
This is probably one of the only ways she can do it, and if you'd lived her life you'd probably want to do the same. There'd just be no other way to express the pain and frustration with the world and how it chewed up a very talented individual and spat her out when it was done with her (or couldn't cope with her becoming a woman with larger than average breasts apparently). I truly can't imagine how hard her life would have been and the life altering decisions she had to make, though it's just her one life, her very, very privileged, wealthy, jet-setting life, and that's all it is and that's all you should expect with this documentary. A study on one of our human brethren, and how their path shaped their story, enough so to be able to share it honestly with others.
I must say that her monologue/interview voice over she seemed a little rehearsed, performative and maybe a little fake, though I'm sure that wasn't her intention, but to us regular, non celebrity folk, it's just a bit self-centered, but again, who can blame her. The Hollywood machine created and influenced this poor young kid, and was done with her when she wasn't the plucky Punky anymore (though really, did she just have a terrible agent that couldn't get her the roles she deserved or was she just a free-spirited bohemian like her father at heart?).
I deeply appreciate that she's shared this story with the world. The celebrity world is a terrifying vortex of misery and narcissism, with extreme highs and lows that only a lucky few can maneuver and only with immense support and genuine love, and most crucially: random luck.
I truly hope she can come out on top and finds peace, she deserves it so much (as do we all). - Belle475 - 16 November 2021
Reflections from a Child Star
Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster actress & the director of this doc) has opened up her personal video diary to the world to share what the experience of coming of age was like for her as a famous child actress. Every person, famous or not, has their own coming of age experience that sometimes you can only fully understand in retrospect, so in that regard this film is relatable to anyone. At the same time, it's different because most people do not transition from beloved child TV star into a teenager in front of the eyes of the world. This film documents not only her experience of that and those of her famous friends, but there are also shared themes amongst her peers, including mental health issues, the highs and lows of creativity, struggles with self-esteem/identity, addiction or abuse of drugs/alcohol, and other traumas. This documentary strips away the shiny pages of Teen Beat to show you the exciting house party and the devastating the morning after (literally and metaphorically), for better or worse. Hollywood is a fast place that many people struggle to navigate at any age. That is magnified for young actors.
The perspective of this film is always that of Soleil. As a viewer, you get the feeling that making this film is a cathartic experience for her, an attempt to heal things of the past. There's lots of home video footage with her now adult observations of the impact of who she was then on the person she is now. Because of that, it feels at times like the documentary meanders with no concrete premise in mind, but that's also kind of the point of it. It's meant to be a raw, real exploration without easy answers. Overall, I found it very interesting! - jfgibson73 - 21 July 2021
Not for you
I was very excited to see what kind of 90s goodness would be in these home videos. For the first half of the movie or so, I was ok with it. The longer it went on, the more it just became all about Soliel. And I don't just mean that she was the main subject; she is the intended audience. As she reads through more diaries and poems and looks back on moments that are only interesting for her, it becomes clear that this project was put together solely for her "growth." That might have been ok if it was the least bit entertaining, and it first it seems like it might be, but that stops as things get more repetitive. You can see in her current day interview footage how proud she is that she has learned so much by looking back at these tapes, but we don't get much out of the deal.
