Moxie User Rating

7.2 stars out of 10 (5 votes)  -  login or register to rate this film

Synopsis

A documentary about Marla Olmstead, a 4-year old girl who has sold over $300,000 dollars worth of paintings. She has been called "a budding Picasso" and had been featured on several American news programs. The situation was looking bright for the girl and her family until CBS' 60 Minutes aired an exposé suggesting strongly that the paintings were painted by her father, himself an amateur painter. With Marla's family's reputation in question, the filmmaker sheds further light on the situation where he is torn between his own responsibility as a journalist and the family's desire to see their integrity restored.

Film Information

• Genre: Documentary
• Director: Amir Bar-Lev
• Written By:
• Starring: Amir Bar-Lev, Anthony Brunelli, Elizabeth Cohen, Michael Kimmelman, Laura Olmstead, Mark Olmstead, and Marla Olmstead
• Running Time: 82 minutes, approx.
• MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language
• Language: English
• Official Site

Reviews

"It is a wonder, marked by a sense of wondrous skepticism that has nothing to do with cynicism."

   - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

"It's a dissection of how the media found and fed and nurtured the story in their insatiable need for content to fill their news hours and talk shows, how it just as quickly turned on them and transformed the story from celebration to vilification, and how the public turned right along with them."

   - Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Amir Bar-Lev's documentary is fascinating on all kinds of levels: as a movie about the nature of art, the lure and pitfalls of celebrity, and the complicated conundrums of parenting."

   - Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

"Amir Bar-Lev's engrossing film is as much about the stubborn ambiguities of art, truth, meaning, and relationships as it is about the authenticity of the Olmstead oeuvre."

   - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

"When others can't see what parents see, there's an inescapable ache. As much as anything, My Kid Could Paint That is about that ache."

   - Noel Murray, The Onion (A.V. Club)

Showtimes

• Wednesday, January 2nd
  7:00 pm
• Thursday, January 3rd
  9:15 pm
• Friday, January 4th
  4:30 pm
• Saturday, January 5th
  2:00 pm
• Sunday, January 6th
  4:30 pm