Reviewed by Robert Hull
Featuring Marla Olmstead, Mark Olmstead, Laura Olmstead,
Zane Olmstead, Anthony Brunelli, Michael Kimmelman,
Elizabeth Cohen, Amir Bar-Lev
Produced by John Battsek, Amir Bar-Lev, Stephen Dunn
UK certification 12 | UK RRP £19.99
DVD Region 2 | Runtime 80 minutes
Directed by Amir Bar-Lev
Amir Bar-Lev’s entertaining and thought-provoking film is another high watermark for the documentary. What makes it so engaging are the twin assets of a genuinely fascinating story and the revelatory aspect of a filmmaker who becomes embroiled in his own movie.
Bar-Lev’s initial intention is to make a documentary about Marla Olmstead, a four-year-old girl from Binghamton, New York, who is being hailed as an artistic genius. Ultimately, he ends up having to defend his journalistic principles in the face of Marla’s parents, who want to use his film as a vehicle to exonerate themselves from allegations of fraud. Marla’s story is certainly one for our media-obsessed times. Encouraged to paint by her parents, Mark and Laura, her abstract artwork attracts the attention of local artists, gallery owners and, subsequently, newspapers and television. Her work is compared to that of Kandinsky and Pollock, and her paintings start to sell for thousands of dollars.
It’s only when CBS’s highly respected magazine programme 60 Minutes airs a show that suggests that Marla’s father might be helping her does the mood of the film change. In fact, it’s at the precise point, as Bar-Lev records the Olmsteads watching the 60 Minutes show go out, that this film flips from being an endearing portrait to being about exploitation and reputation. The film becomes compelling because its subject changes. You start to question the role of the media, from the hometown reporter who broke the story, to the big networks turning it into a negative picture. Then there’s the conundrum of art; how we perceive it and where its value really comes from. Do you like a painting for what it is, or for what it represents? Allied to this a sense of whodunit. Is Marla being manipulated by her parents? And, if so, why would they continue this so brazenly in front of the mass media? Finally, you have Bar-Lev, a filmmaker drawn into this story as a character in his own right. Should he help out the new "friends" he now has serious doubts over, or does he withdraw and be the impartial observer? Whichever way you see it — and you should really see it — My Kid Could Paint That provides superb entertainment and fantastic after-movie conversation.
EXTRAS *** An audio commentary with artist and gallery owner Anthony Brunelli, who "discovered" Marla, and film editor John Walter. Plus two featurettes: Back to Binghamton (a collection of deleted scenes, outtakes, questions and answers) and Michael Kimmelman On Art. Plus trailers for a bunch of other films, none of which has anything to do with this one.
• Marla Olmstead's website
• Read our interview with filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev HERE