Sundance Review: TEENAGE PAPARAZZO

Adrian Grenier plays a famous guy on Entourage, which in turn has made him super famous. Dealing with the paparazzi is an everyday occurrence for Vince, and Adrian. During an event he is accosted by a 13 year old kid who turns out to be a regular paparazzo. Intrigued by this phenomenon he gets the idea to follow the kid around and get an inside look at the world of papping.

Austin Visschedyk is a 13 year old kid who lives in LA with his mom and enjoys taking pictures. Instead of shooting photos of typical 13 year old stuff, he rolls out to red carpets, outside restaurants, and even outside of houses waiting to get the elusive celebrity photo. Austin is a paparazzo.

The film is completely narrated by Adrian Grenier, and the film is a double sided view of both him and Austin vs the rest of the paparazzi. Adrian is so intrigued by this phenomenon that he asks Austin to help him buy a camera and goes out to try his hand at papping.

The pap world doesnt welcome Adrian with open arms and actually brings a little heat onto Austin because everyone thinks that the purpose of the film is to make them look bad. When in reality we get a glimpse of the paps being real people, who are just trying to make money for their families. Some of the ways they go about doing it are a bit sleazeball but for the most part they are just trying to do a job.

Eventually the lifestyle and attention Austin gets from the documentary and various news outlets goes to his head, but at 14 making that kind of money from selling photos and having a documentary made about you…whose head would it not go to? He becomes cocky, uninterested and just generally a little brat. Adrian see’s this and attempts to help Austin broaden his horizon’s with other photography outlets. He fails.

Towards the end of the doc, Adrian sits them down and makes both Austin and his mom watch the film which is a big turn around for both of them because they can see first hand how they come off to the world. In the end, Austin isnt the 13 year old boy he started out as. He sees the error of his ways and at almost 16 has matured enough to realize to appreciate and respect everything he has and does.

The documentary is very well told. Adrian is as charming as always and you cant help but love the guy. Austin starts off as a cute kid, then grows into an annoying brat, and ends up as a respectable young adult. One of my favorite documentaries at the festival this year.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5