Film

The Kid Stays in the Picture

Name: The Kid Stays in the Picture
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2002
Cast: Robert Evans

Robert Evans narrates his own myth from beyond the boardroom, using nothing but production stills, home movies, and that unmistakable rasp. It's less a documentary than a masterclass in self-invention — the Paramount wunderkind who greenlit The Godfather and Chinatown, then imploded spectacularly, tells you exactly how great he was. Gossipy, gorgeous, unapologetically one-sided; catnip for anyone who loves old Hollywood folklore.

TMDb rating

6.6

If you liked this

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse1991

A companion piece in spirit — a producer's ego and a director's madness colliding on the same era's grandest gamble, told through raw behind-the-scenes footage rather than polished nostalgia.

But Focuses on Coppola's descent rather than a single glamorous life story, so it's messier and less fun than Evans's version of events.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse poster

Listen to Me Marlon2015

Brando narrates his own life using hours of private audio tapes he recorded for himself, creating the same eerie, first-person myth-making Evans pulls off — just sadder and stranger.

But Far more melancholy and introspective; there's little of the swaggering fun that makes Evans's story so entertaining.

Chinatown1974

One of the films Evans fought hardest to make, and the clearest proof his instincts were real — a masterpiece born from exactly the kind of chaos he describes.

But It's a slow-burning noir, not a Hollywood memoir; if you want more Evans lore, this won't give you any directly.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Sunset Boulevard1950

Evans narrates his own rise and fall as myth; Sunset Boulevard invented that exact trick decades earlier — a dead narrator telling you his own doomed Hollywood story, glamour curdling into delusion.

The original self-mythologizing Hollywood story, narrated by a corpse floating in a swimming pool — grand, cynical, and gorgeous, and every insider-Hollywood documentary since owes it a debt.

But It's a 1950 black-and-white studio picture, so the pacing and theatrical acting style will feel dated next to Evans's brash tabloid energy.

Life Itself2014

Another larger-than-life American storyteller reflecting on a career built on words and opinion, but told with more tenderness and less self-mythology than Evans allows himself.

But It's a film about illness and mortality as much as fame, so the tone is far gentler and sadder.

Val2021

Val Kilmer, using decades of his own home-movie footage, tells his own Hollywood story in his own voice — vain, wounded, funny, and startlingly intimate in a way Evans never quite risks.

But Kilmer's voice was damaged by illness, so much of the narration is text-to-speech, which some viewers find distancing.

The Bad and the Beautiful1952

A ruthless, charismatic Hollywood producer builds an empire on other people's talent and heartbreak — this 1952 classic basically wrote the blueprint Evans later lived out for real.

But It's a scripted melodrama, not a documentary, so you lose the thrill of Evans's actual voice telling his own tale.

Boogie Nights1997

Same decade's excess, same rise-and-fall shape, same intoxicating sense of an industry family built on ambition and cocaine — just fictionalized and set one rung down the ladder from Paramount's offices.

But It's about the adult film industry, not mainstream studios, and the tone swings much darker and sadder than Evans's cheerful bravado.

Mank2020no page yet

David Fincher's monochrome portrait of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz digs into the same old-Hollywood machine of ego, booze, and studio politics that shaped Evans's world decades later.

But Dense with 1930s studio-system references and dialogue-heavy scenes that reward knowing the history rather than simply enjoying the ride.

Corman's World2011no page yet

A scrappier, funnier flip side of the producer-as-legend story — Roger Corman's decades of B-movie hustle make Evans's velvet-lined Paramount empire look positively glamorous by comparison.

But Corman's charm is quieter and cheaper than Evans's; if you want gloss and grandeur, this is deliberately the opposite.

American Movie1999

Same obsession — a man convinced his own movie-making destiny is a myth worth telling — but stripped of money and studio backing, showing what the dream looks like without Evans's luck.

A broke, hilarious, heartbreaking documentary about an amateur filmmaker chasing his own Robert Evans fantasy with none of the resources, proving the dream is the same size no matter your budget.

But It's scrappy and cringe-inducing by design; there's no glamour here, just raw failure and stubborn hope, which some find uncomfortable to watch.

F for Fake1973

Orson Welles's essay-film about forgers, liars, and his own unreliable narration is the art-house ancestor of Evans's whole shtick — a film that admits, gleefully, that the storyteller might be conning you.

Welles turns documentary itself into a magic trick, blending fact, fraud, and his own booming narration into a meditation on why we love charismatic liars — Evans's spiritual grandfather.

But It's a genuinely strange, non-linear essay film from the 70s; anyone wanting straightforward biography will find it deliberately slippery and confusing.