McKellar—whose résumé reflects a wide ranging listing of some innovative and acclaimed movies from Canada and beyond—wrote, directed, and stars in Childstar, his second full-length feature after his critically acclaimed Last Night, which won him many plaudits including prizes at the Genie Awards and at Cannes. Childstar, however, is diametrically different from Last Night, not just in subject, but also in the aesthetic quality that the auteur McKellar attempts visually. It’s a movie about Hollywood, set in Toronto, and surprisingly enough it looks ‘Hollywood’ enough. It’s slick, and it’s unlike anything that one would consider predominately Canadian—grainy-looking art house picture this is not. That is not to say that this film doesn’t have some intellectual quality. Because it’s a McKellar picture, its themes are complex, and to describe the film would need more than the obligatory sentence or two found on IMDB.com.

Leigh plays Suzanne, the narcissistic and manipulative mom of Taylor Brandon Burns, played by the remarkable Mark Rendall, the child actor who is at once being abused of his talents, and at another who seemingly abuses those around him. McKellar plays Rick, an aspiring filmmaker snared into the family drama of the stage brat and his mum. Rick has desires of fulfilling his artistic promise, but in the meantime is the precocious young man’s limousine driver. While shepherding the childstar of his generation to and from the set, Rick and Suzanne become involved with one another. Along the way, young Burns disappears in Toronto, whereby some cloak and dagger searching goes on, not just in the literal sense, but also in the figurative sense, as the characters reveal themselves in the smart script, with some fine performances from a cast of well-knowns.

Childstar is chockfull with cameos from some notables, but they aren’t employed in the farcical sense. Rather they are stylishly used, allowing for contributions to the film that are intelligent and engaging. For example, Dave Foley plays a character different from that program director we came to know on Newsradio, and he’s actually quite good. So is Gil Bellows as the dirt bag agent of Burns, who’s so convincing that you’d think he really was an asshole in real life. Ditto for Alan Thicke, who takes off on his Growing Pains dad and avuncular off-stage persona, playing the television dad of Burns. He chews up his scenes with an ironic pathos and innate cynicism made real that you’d think that’s what he really is in real life. (Alas, McKellar swears he isn’t.)

As for the principals, McKellar is amusingly enigmatic. We get a sense of the artistic motivations of his character Rick, but as he is drawn into the incestuous nature of Hollywood blockbuster crafting, the delineations get a bit muddled. I won’t give away the film by saying if the good guy prevails, as in, the artist is validated, but it’s a nearly furtive journey that Rick takes from the opening shot to the credits. Both Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mark Rendall are superb in that they are convincing in the parts they play. They sell the characters well, and just as they fool the characters in the film, they fool the audience. As for the remarkable achievement of Don McKellar, the filmmaker, he’s crafted a film that is witty, scathing and convincing.

The film boasts no expected references to Gary Coleman or Macaulay Culkin. It’s not that kind of movie. One critic said it was a treatise on parenting, another said it had to do with the clash of cultures had when the American Hollywood types descend on Toronto. Really, the film is about art and the artistic process.

Childstar is an interesting view into the moviemaking business, and probably indicative of McKellar’s own angst against Hollywood and the motion picture industry. By taking his frustrations over Hollywood and the whole moviemaking industry and having them play out as a character in Childstar, setting them in the Hollywood North of Toronto, he’s revealed much about how cutthroat, unfeeling, and phoney show business really is. By virtue of his scholarship in writing, directing and starring in this film, McKellar reveals that there are movies still being made, in Canada no less, that adhere to the idealistic and perhaps foolish notion that good movies can flourish in spite of the crass commercialism of Hollywood.

Childstar opened nationwide this past Friday, January 28, 2005.

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In conjunction with the film’s promotion, I had the opportunity to speak with Don McKellar about Childstar and about the state of the Canadian cinema. That conversation is available in Real Audio format here: http://www.thecommentary.ca/ontheline/20050120a.html