I've caught bits and pieces of this movie over the last few months, and finally watched it in it's entirety. I'm not sure if it was the filmmakers goal to show how screwed up Hollywood is or not, I got the sense they felt the people they were filming should be taken seriously, but the egocentric, scam laced, delusional lifestyles of these people made me glad I've never had any interest to pursue any sort of dreams of fame.
I felt sympathy for the kids, as they were being pushed into something most obviously didn't want to do, manipulated by nightmare mothers, exploited by scam artist agents, and insincere casting directors. I could feel the awkwardness as the kids simply repeated what their mothers told them to say about things like why they wanted to be actors & actresses.
Every scene alternated as an example of how everyone in the Hollywood machine was trying scam someone else out of their piece of the pie, and these parents willingness to throw all their money away on these scams in their displaced desires. Watching these parents make their children jump through hoops like trained seals was surreal.
The entire movie was an example of poor parenting and the train wrecks that people can be. The scenes that stood out for me was the BS new- agey exercises for the kids to "feel great" about themselves, the fat tacky mother talking about getting out of their one stop light Missouri town and talking about how she use to drink all the time, the agent that repeated the same spiel with different girls, the self proclaimed "movie star" Tami Erin's name dropping (even though she's only had 4 credits to her name), and the one mother that joined Scientology to network with the stars.
There was value to watching this movie, but based on the "success stories" at the end of the movie, I'm not sure the filmmakers realized what message non-Hollywood types would take from it.
