CHILDSTAR

I attended the 6:30 screening of CHILDSTAR on Friday, September 10th at the VISA Screening Room of the Elgin Theatre. The movie started a little late (hey, it takes a while to get everyone seated, especially when you have Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada in the house) ;)

I have seen some of Don McKellar's earlier work, such as the movie "Last Night" and the TV series "Twitch City"; and I must say that his work gets better with age. He is a comic genius, and this movie makes you care about the customers when you need to care, makes you hate the characters when you need to hate, and makes you laugh at the circumstances that young actors can find themselves in.

There is even a cameo of Alan Thicke playing (shocking!!) the father of the TV show "Family Differences" (which evokes memories of "Growing Pains"). This film is one of the first that has both Hollywood stars (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Stolz) and Canadian favorites (Dave Foley and Don McKellar) who are all equally compelling and convincing in their own ways. The "child star" in question is played excellently by Mark Rendall (Taylor Brandon Burns) who starts the movie as the arrogant, self-absorbed, demanding diva that one would read about in the National Enquirer. By the end of the movie, you actually care about the little jerk, and you hope that he gets to live some of his life as a real person.

I was really impressed by this effort from Don McKellar, and can't wait until it is in wide-release. This was a great movie for me to start my Toronto International Film Festival experience.