Kid 90 (2021)

I am sure there was a home video recording of my mom holding up her drawing of Punky Brewster and silly 5-year-old me saying, "Can I marry Punky?" (I still can't believe I thought like that so young when most boys find girls “icky”). So you can imagine that I support this endeavor of Soleil Moon Frye’s 100% right at the outset. Kid90 made me damn sad too since I also had a camcorder and was filming my friends hanging out at school and in basements and in cars. Granted I’m not a rich celebrity that hung out with people like this but it’s more about the feeling of being young and having the freedom to make random connections. Yet I also recognize this is not a glowing work of art, but more of a nostalgia trip since nearly every person she encountered, I more or less looked up to when I was young.

Seeing some of these faces made me miss some of my own friends who have either passed on or moved far away. There was something about the pre-social media age for sure here there were few distractions and we could focus on each other's needs for connection. Social media just pales in comparison to the real experience of sharing thoughts outside with a group of friends when the school day is over. This poignant, personal documentary knows that and manages to let every picture (or video) tell a story that hits close to home no matter what era you grew up in. Granted, a lot of these are just snippets of memories or stories & interviews from familiar celebrity faces but there’s a lot of heart and honesty from all involved. Anytime I think of how we lost someone like River Phoenix, it’s hard not to get emotional. This happens several times watching this even as a film, I wouldn’t necessarily cite it as original or structurally strong. Frye lacks any sort of pretension or self-congratulatory ego-tripping, which makes this all the more endearing especially coming from a fan.

There's a lot of joy to be had in simply just seeing this through the creator's eyes and what it's like to look back realizing we can't actually go back. I remember seeing the magazine cover at the grocery store about Punky's surgery and being very happy that she went through with it. It's not a great documentary in terms of an artistic statement but merely just a lovely tribute to a more innocent time that was full of fond memories shared with good people. If it had a little more focus, I would've loved it all the more. But as is, I can't lie about my own reaction which was full of warm smiles mixed with some melancholy. We learn about so many child actors that continue to work to this day, while also shedding light on some of the tragedies that led to losing a lot of young talent. In that regard there are many moments where you smile and nod while also getting misty-eyed due to the loss we all face as we grow older. Kid90 works as a special encapsulation of a very vulnerable, real moment in the history of its storyteller. And it’s courtesy of someone that I happened to grow up with even if it was mainly through a television screen. Punky Power lives on!