My Kid Could Paint That
3.5/4
Rated PG-13 for Language
I'm not the world's biggest documentary fan. Due to the nature of the genre, they can come off as more school lessons than movies. Done right, however, as is the case with "My Kid Could Paint That," they become more fascinating than many fictional movies.
The film is about Marla Olmstead, a four year old girl who likes to paint. The thing is, she's really good. So good, in fact, that she attracts the attention of artist Anthony Brunelli, who is looking to open up his own gallery. He sees her paintings in a coffee shop and agrees to have a showing for her work. Her works sell like wildfire, each painting garnering higher and higher prices. The four year old girl is the talk of the art world, and Marla and her family are swooped up into this whirlwind of attention and media frenzy. That's when an interview on "60 Minutes II" changed everything. Ellen Winner, a child psychologist claimed that Marla wasn't a prodigy and was coached, and that the painting she shown on the show wasn't as strong as the others. That's when the Olmsteads and Brunelli were vilified by the art community and the world. Redemption came when Marla's parents taped her painting a piece from beginning to end.
Literally, this is a documentary that can make you feel the same emotions as the people in it. There's excitement as the family is getting all this attention, and shock, despair and rage after it all comes tumbling down after the "60 Minutes" show.
The people in the film are surprisingly well-developed. Director Amir Bar-Lev takes time to allow us to see multiple sides of each of the people involved. Mark, Marla's father, loves the attention (maybe a little too much...), while Laura, Marla's mother, does not. Both of them want to give Marla as normal a childhood as possible, but that's a struggle because they're living in a whirlwind of attention and fame that they didn't necessarily want.
Bar-Lev also takes time to look at modern art in general. A number of people that he interviews think, or at least give voice to the idea that modern art is a sham. A few cool scribbles on the page might be worth a hundred bucks or so if you're feeling generous, but being sold for millions as auction houses like Christie's? Holy crap!
Could the claims of fraud on the part of Marla's parents be due to an insecurity that if a four year old can do what modern artists are being paid millions for, they'll be out of a job? Possibly. Certainly, some claims of modern art are questionable. I recall seeing a piece at the modern art museum that's basically a huge box printed halfway with purple and the other half black. It looks like something I could make on my printer if i could If that's art worthy of putting in a museum, then what's the cutoff?
There's discussion about our fascination with child prodigies. People think it's unique to see a child operating on an adult level, although the film doesn't go much deeper than that.
Also interesting is the fact that Bar-Lev becomes a part of his own documentary. His subjects as him questions on how he feels about what he's filming and what he plans to do with his footage. And he admits to feeling conflicted about the possibility of having to claim that some very nice people are frauds.
Ultimately, this film is about the controversy of whether Marla did or did not do the paintings herself. If Bar-Lev has any doubts, he doesn't show it (well, he has doubts at the end, although it's impossible to understand why. The evidence doesn't hold up. There are videos of her painting by herself, and the evidence of "coaching" is hardly that, even if it is what it looks like. Saying "Paint on the red" is hardly guilty. She may have followed his instructions on where to paint, but what she painted is of her own devising. My guess is that "60 Minutes II" wanted to keep the story alive by feeding on the public's need to tear down idols (celebrity gossip magazines, anyone?) and hired someone looking for their 15 minutes of fame. The evidence just doesn't back it up.
Still, this is a fun and very entertaining ride.
Rated PG-13 for Language
I'm not the world's biggest documentary fan. Due to the nature of the genre, they can come off as more school lessons than movies. Done right, however, as is the case with "My Kid Could Paint That," they become more fascinating than many fictional movies.
The film is about Marla Olmstead, a four year old girl who likes to paint. The thing is, she's really good. So good, in fact, that she attracts the attention of artist Anthony Brunelli, who is looking to open up his own gallery. He sees her paintings in a coffee shop and agrees to have a showing for her work. Her works sell like wildfire, each painting garnering higher and higher prices. The four year old girl is the talk of the art world, and Marla and her family are swooped up into this whirlwind of attention and media frenzy. That's when an interview on "60 Minutes II" changed everything. Ellen Winner, a child psychologist claimed that Marla wasn't a prodigy and was coached, and that the painting she shown on the show wasn't as strong as the others. That's when the Olmsteads and Brunelli were vilified by the art community and the world. Redemption came when Marla's parents taped her painting a piece from beginning to end.
Literally, this is a documentary that can make you feel the same emotions as the people in it. There's excitement as the family is getting all this attention, and shock, despair and rage after it all comes tumbling down after the "60 Minutes" show.
The people in the film are surprisingly well-developed. Director Amir Bar-Lev takes time to allow us to see multiple sides of each of the people involved. Mark, Marla's father, loves the attention (maybe a little too much...), while Laura, Marla's mother, does not. Both of them want to give Marla as normal a childhood as possible, but that's a struggle because they're living in a whirlwind of attention and fame that they didn't necessarily want.
Bar-Lev also takes time to look at modern art in general. A number of people that he interviews think, or at least give voice to the idea that modern art is a sham. A few cool scribbles on the page might be worth a hundred bucks or so if you're feeling generous, but being sold for millions as auction houses like Christie's? Holy crap!
Could the claims of fraud on the part of Marla's parents be due to an insecurity that if a four year old can do what modern artists are being paid millions for, they'll be out of a job? Possibly. Certainly, some claims of modern art are questionable. I recall seeing a piece at the modern art museum that's basically a huge box printed halfway with purple and the other half black. It looks like something I could make on my printer if i could If that's art worthy of putting in a museum, then what's the cutoff?
There's discussion about our fascination with child prodigies. People think it's unique to see a child operating on an adult level, although the film doesn't go much deeper than that.
Also interesting is the fact that Bar-Lev becomes a part of his own documentary. His subjects as him questions on how he feels about what he's filming and what he plans to do with his footage. And he admits to feeling conflicted about the possibility of having to claim that some very nice people are frauds.
Ultimately, this film is about the controversy of whether Marla did or did not do the paintings herself. If Bar-Lev has any doubts, he doesn't show it (well, he has doubts at the end, although it's impossible to understand why. The evidence doesn't hold up. There are videos of her painting by herself, and the evidence of "coaching" is hardly that, even if it is what it looks like. Saying "Paint on the red" is hardly guilty. She may have followed his instructions on where to paint, but what she painted is of her own devising. My guess is that "60 Minutes II" wanted to keep the story alive by feeding on the public's need to tear down idols (celebrity gossip magazines, anyone?) and hired someone looking for their 15 minutes of fame. The evidence just doesn't back it up.
Still, this is a fun and very entertaining ride.
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