THE KID & I Special Screenings

Acclaimed, versatile filmmaker Penelope Spheeris is best known for straddling two careers – directing commercial Hollywood comedies (WAYNE’S WORLD, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, BLACK SHEEP) while lovingly documenting the emergence and trajectory of punk and heavy metal (THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, PARTS I, II and Ill). In a departure for Spheeris, here she teams up with comedian Tom Arnold who penned the script after being inspired by his next-door neighbor Eric Gores, who plays Aaron Roman in THE KID AND I.

On the bring of committing suicide, washed-up actor/writer Bill Williams (Arnold) is hired by a wealthy businessman (Joe Mantegna) to write and act in a film to star his son Aaron, a boy with cerebral palsy who wants nothing more than to live out his unlikely pair, Bill and Aaron embark on a journey of outrageous misadventures.

Drawing wryly on actual events – the film that made Arnold famous over a decade ago was TRUE LIES – THE KID AND I is peppered with inspired casting choices (Linda Hamilton and Henry Winkler play key characters in Williams’ life) while Jamie Lee Curtis, Arnold Swartzenager, Saquile O’Neal and Spheeris all play themselves in delightful cameos. But the real star of the movie is the irrepressible Eric Gores, who triumphs over his disability with determination, humor and panache,