Kid Stays in the Picture, The

 

Story:

Based on the 1994 autobiography of film producer Robert Evans, this documentary follows Evans's career as he went from fresh-faced clothing executive to Hollywood actor to Paramount executive to legendary producer (Marathon Man, Chinatown). We also follow Evans through a cocaine controversy, into disreputation and low times, and finally to his comeback producing several 1990s films. Evans himself provides the narration (NetFlix).

Review:

The Kid Stays in the Picture is a worthy documentary watch if you enjoy the film industry and stories of what sometimes has to happen to get gigantic films onto the big screen. Between his poolside discovery and foray into acting straight through to the moment he sat to narrate this documentary, Robert Evans was around for a lot in Hollywood, and in this film he tells numerous engaging tales craftily designed to capture and keep your attention.

Evans’ own voiceover is one of the highlights of the film as the viewer can hear his larger than life attitude and get a sense of how it drove his decisions during both the high times and the low. When talking up his greatest successes like The Godfather and Chinatown, for instance, Evans tells the films’ back stories with vigor, excitedly telling his tales to the audience as if they were sitting next to him.

The documentary’s time is split nicely between a rocky Hollywood success story with some of the typical ups and downs and a goldmine of Hollywood insider stories. What makes the film especially entertaining, though, is how it depicts Evans’ love of filmmaking in a way that’s almost as bold and original as some of Evans’ greatest works.

From the film’s description of the lengthy battle Evans staged with Frank Sinatra to keep Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby to the moment the documentary’s central character discovered what he wanted to do with his life (and you the viewer learn where the title of the movie originated), The Kid Stays in the Picture has some truly engaging moments that will entertain most – if not all fans of moviemaking.

Unfortunately, the documentary was a little slow at times, but that might be because the bulk of it tells such bold stories that the leisurely moments seem that much blander. This drawback affected not only the film’s pacing but the visuals, as well, as instead of fading out of view behind the brighter film clips and great photos that populate the film, the footage that just didn’t seem to fit (I’m looking at you, repetitive shots of idyllic home and garden) stuck out in my mind more than it probably should have.

Overall, The Kid Stays in the Picture is good but not great, which is understandably a little hard to fathom. At least in my case, I was expecting the documentary to live up to the great films featured in it. While it isn’t as good as the classics it details, the film is laudable for its ability to build comparisons between some of the films’ best elements and Evans’ life itself. Whatever the documentary lacked in greatness compared to The Godfather, Love Story, and Rosemary’s Baby, it made up for it in its analysis of Evans’ own battle for power, his personal heartache, and the man’s personal demons, and that in itself is a pretty cool feature.

Reviewed by Ryan Pollyea for Documentary Film Online on March 21, 2011

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