The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)

Legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans narrates the story of his own life. His movie career started in 1956 at the poolside of the Beverly Hills Hotel. He gets a few movie roles. In 'The Sun Also Rises' (1957), Ernest Hemingway telegrams Darryl F. Zanuck to get rid of Evans with most of the cast's support. Zanuck proclaims "The Kid Stays in the Picture. And anybody who doesn't like it can quit." After an unimpressive acting career, he joins Charlie Bluhdorn whose company Gulf+Western Corporation purchased the failing studio Paramount Pictures. After a string of films such as Rosemary's Baby, Love Story and The Godfather, it had become the biggest studio. He then goes on to produce Chinatown after which his marriage to Ali MacGraw ends. It's also the start of the darker times. He starts doing cocaine. Some film failures such as 'The Cotton Club', and being connected in the murder of Roy Radin would send him out of the studio that he rebuild.The stories are better than fiction. The name dropping and the movie connections are epic. It starts with Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra. Through it all, there is the gruff voice of Robert Evans. It's hypnotic. As he falls down the rabbit hole, it becomes even personal. The addition of his movies to portray his life gives such a surreal touch. It is movie magic. One also has the sense that this is an old man telling his tales. Like all such instances, one must take these stories with a grain of salt. It is nevertheless epic.

If you're interested in watching a fantastic balance of straight-up narrative and stunningly executed cutting-edge media slinging, this is it.This film is so much more, of course; the story is compelling on various levels; the human-interest side, certainly. But also the inside scoop on period Hollywood fame-surfing.I need to know: Who, in the end, is really creatively responsible for this film's look and feel? I want to shake his or her hand.And, finally, the film ends elegantly. Few films do this. Maddeningly, this tends to be especially true of films that excite by daring to lunge out into fantastic creative spaces as this one does. They wind up being described at parties thusly; "Nice premise and early execution, but peters/cops out at the end."This film doesn't cop out. Watch it.

"The Kid Stays in the Picture" tells the first-hand account of the life of Robert Evans, with narration from the audio version of his memoir. The title is in reference to the big break Evans received in the mid-1950s by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck when everyone else was against the inexperienced actor playing the lead in a film. From his short-lived on-screen career he quickly moved up the ranks to become a major Hollywood producer. What follows is ninety minutes of deep-voiced narration, a steady flurry of pictures upon pictures, and a consistent stream of namedropping. The first person narration has a vibe that doesn't let up that screams "I love me, so you should too". As wonderful as "Chinatown" and other such films he was quote-responsible for are the flick feels a lot like a love note to him self for all to see. It's got wonderful pacing, but it feels so empty. Sure, it briefly abandons rule numero uno of the usual biopic, which is to leave out the bad parts and the real character flaws, but even those glimpses of humility are under-involving. There's just so little going on besides an old man looking back on those years he clawed his way up into the comfort of his own legacy. It's not as interesting as it should have been, even if it's as truthful as it can get.

It would be easy to criticise this documentary as a self-indulgent superficial exercise in egotism, but only if you choose the disengaged cynical view of the film. If you can alternatively sit back and enjoy an autobiographical Hollywood fairytale described by a seasoned storyteller who has been and there done it, who knows both the ugliness and the magic of movie-town, USA, you're in for a treat.The gloss, the glitz, the joy and self-recrimination, it's all seldom been so intimately communicated in film. Dismiss any notion that it's vapid story-light Entertainment Now celebrity pap and rent it out.8 out of 10.