By the way, I just googled "Gerren Taylor," checked out the results, and am convinced bovine growth hormones are causing a larger percentage of American girls to hit puberty at seven year old. Gerren is 12? That's just... wrong. I feel... like Capone felt. Cognitive dissonance is creeping in.

This will be a good film to see.

Well jimmy...the simple answer is Hollywood. for ordinary girls growing up, they don't generally see the size-zero models of Europe...thats not whats on their tvs...movies and shows coming out of Hollywood...paris hilton getting constant attention by the media...record producers, movie producers etc demanding that their acts be thinner.

Of course this problem doesnt just exist in the US...its the same everywhere, especially Europe (France and Italy mostly, but other countries too)...it's just that the focus is on America because of the rise of movies and tv...because of talentless bimbos like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie...in Europe modelling is the big problem, but in the US...its pretty much any career in showbiz that demands that girls be matchsticks.

As for why the doc is all about the US...well I assume its becaue the filmmaker is American...

Having said that the rest of the world is so saturated with American media and a very large part of the hollywood and fashion 'ideal' comes from the States, much more than they previous French and Italian focus. Look at what is actually being said (or NOT said) and don't let patriotism blind you (or jingoism I should say). It's HEALTHY to question things, even America the beautiful.

And no, no other country in the world subjects little girls to the same degree of psychological torture that the American Beauty Pagent culture does. Notice I said same degree. There are plenty of "coulda been a contender" parents that live vicariously through their kids all over the world, but the U.S. has cornered the market on the Beauty Pagent thing, which seems to be a focus of this film (from the review), and a touchstone in terms of complications down the line.

Thanks for clearing that up. Cobbio. I thought for a second there they were re-releasing that "in the round" movie from Disneyland that I saw as a little kid in '79! But it's actually-

THIS YEAR'S LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE!

I'm not suggesting rampant superficiality is an acceptable thing, otherwise we'd all be Patrick Bateman. But the simple fact is some people are better looking than others, and we - as living, breathing, felling human beings - will want to look at and appreciate them, and I see no reason to feel bad about that.

Anyway, thanks for the review, Capone. I'm going to keep an eye for the film.

My bad.