Soleil Moon Frye spent four years going through footage she had shot, diaries, and voicemails, from when she was a teenage girl in the 1990s. Initially planning to make the film not about herself, she began reaching out to friends from that period regardless if she had remained friends or drifted apart from them.[1] When deciding to include herself in the film, she asked a consulting editor on the project to interview her in the film.[2]Jonathan Brandis' parents approved of footage of him appearing in the film.[2]
Kid 90 holds a 76% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "It's insular and uneven, but Kid 90 also presents a raw and affecting first-person look at the experience of growing up in the spotlight."[5] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 67 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[6]
Zach Ruskin for the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film a "Little Man Clapping", roughly translating to a 4/5 stars, opining "Other documentaries have made this point in grander, more artistic ways, but there is value in seeing this raw footage that accompanies an adolescence spent in front of the camera."[7]
