Punky Brewster’s Soleil Moon Frye took a camera with her wherever she went during her years as a child actor in Hollywood in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Thanks to her incessant need to film everything, she has tons of footage of her famous child star friends. Around the turn of the century, she put down her camera and locked all the footage away for twenty years. When she finally took it out of storage and looked at it (which conveniently just so happened to be when she was about to star in a Punky Brewster reboot), she decided to make a documentary about it.
It’s great to see footage of so many child stars in their prime hanging out, partying, and generally just being themselves. This is the real reason to see Kid 90. The new scenes of a mature Frye trying to connect the dots of how the footage shaped her life fall flat.
Kid 90 is kind of coy about a lot of stuff. I guess Frye was trying to maintain a certain level of innocence here (or maybe she just didn’t want to incriminate anyone), but in doing so, it ultimately comes off like a fluff piece. The only real revelation is who she lost her virginity to. I won’t spoil it here, but I’m sure you can probably guess who it is, knowing his reputation.
The present-day interviews with the former child stars who appear in the footage offer little insight. It must be said that some enjoyment can be had from their reactions to seeing footage of their younger selves after thirty years. It’s just not enough to base a whole movie on. The scenes of Fry reconnecting with an old flame make for lackluster finale too. (It would’ve made for a better climax if they managed to get You Know Who on camera.)
The most shocking thing about Kid 90 is the fact that so many of the kids featured in the old videos are no longer with us (many by suicide or drugs). It’s still fairly entertaining, even if the film is kind of skimpy on a cohesive through line. I guess Frye coming through the other side as a survivor is narrative enough.
If you watch Kid 90 for purely nostalgic purposes, you will probably enjoy it. Honestly, I was hoping for something a bit more. Then again, any documentary that contains behind the scenes footage of the 1995 Piranha remake AND Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings is OK by me.
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