Mad Max in water with a high budget. Polar ice caps have melted, and water has covered all land. You've probably seen this movie, and if not, it's about time for multiple reasons. The action is good and there is plenty of it. The visuals are gorgeous, and above all interesting: the world is more unique than most scifi/fantasy worlds and full of detail. I paused the movie several times just to get a better look at costumes. The downside is that there is little besides the action. The possibilities of the post-apocalyptic world are not nearly fully used. We learn very little about anyone's past. It's also a very straightforward, formulaic action movie story, although the originality of the world fills a lot of the emptiness of the story.

Tina, nine years old here, plays Enola, a girl who has a map to mythical Dryland tattooed to her back. Our hero Mariner (Kevin Costner) saves her and her mother, and goes off with them in search of the Dryland. Enola doesn't get to do any long conversations, but she's on screen a lot, and has an inclination for speaking all the time. She's sassy, and cute as always. I liked her character, and her costume. It's surprising how well shortish hair suits her. Easily one of Tina's best, and probably the most entertaining role.

A sweet children's movie, consisting of shorter mini plots. Lotta is a charmingly uppity five-year-old, played to perfection by cute Grete. Nice and wholesome entertainment for all children and, as far as I'm concerned, anyone else too. There exists also a sequel of sorts, Lotta 2 - Lotta flyttar hemifrån, which is more of the same, although Grete looks a year older in some parts.

Jodie Foster received an Oscar nomination for playing 12-year-old prostitute Iris in this film, and there is strength in her performance to merit that. The age of the film shows, though, and while apparently ground breaking at its time, it hasn't aged very well in many respects. The main character is a taxi driver called Travis (Robert De Niro), a mentally unstable Vietnam vet who takes on a mission to clean up all the filth he sees in New York.

You can read plenty of praise about the movie elsewhere, but to us, Taxi Driver is a rather slow-paced, dark drama which while not bad, offers little new to today's audience. Jodie was 14 while making the film and looks the age, especially with her somewhat precocious mannerisms.

Were Jodie's performance in the film not so well known, we wouldn't have included this movie in Young Actress Reviews. Jodie's role receives less screen time and development than you'd think given its fame.

Push makes as clichéd a superhero thriller as can be without skin-tight uniforms: young, cool people with a variety of powers; evil governments who want them for soldiers; competing factions; changing the past to affect the future; lethal-for-superheroes serum; plenty of action. The plot, which seems like an afterthought, involves everyone trying to find a briefcase with valuable contents. The visuals at least are strong, especially the neon-colored, vaguely cyberpunk-flavored Hong Kong where events take place.

Dakota plays Cassie, a motherless 13-year-old. She's a Watcher, which means she can see glimpses of the future. She and two others comprise the story's main protagonists. Although one reviewer comments that Cassie's superpowers seem to include having access to the Olsen twins' wardrobe trailer, I rather like her trendy, slightly punk style.

Cassie acts older than very nearly any real girl of her age. She's independent, strong and sensible. At the same time she's not devoid of teenage mannerisms and attitude, as well as occasional fragility. It's an entertaining character, and, being a very large role, more than enough reason to watch the movie.

With Push it can no longer be said that Dakota is a child actress. She has fully shed her childhood appearance and mannerisms, which we have become so fond of over the years. We look forward to seeing what Dakota brings to the silver screen in the future, but regrettably future performances will likely be off-topic for this site.

Outnumbered is a British sitcom about the most ordinary subject, in a way: family life with three children. As you guessed, Ramona is one of the children, Karen, and in my opinion superb in all ways, including the perhaps fundamental requirement of being funny in a serious, naive kind of way, as if fitting for a small child. Style of the show is very realistic, so there is little in way of cutesy silly things that children would say, or actual jokes being told. For my sense of humor, scenes like where Karen brings home a drawing she made in school about a cow killing people since he doesn't want to be made burgers of work perfectly. And all that in a very British accent.

Despite its shortcomings, Saint Monica is an attractive little movie. That is especially so if you like Genevieve, who has the main role as 10-year-old Monica, and appears in most scenes. Monica lives with her Portuguese-Canadian single mother and lazy uncle in a basement apartment in Toronto. For whatever reason – and that we never find out is characteristic of the movie – Monica is quite obsessed with angels, and really wants to play one in a procession of her church. Forgivably for a child, she steals large angel wings from the church, only to lose them again to an eccentric, old woman named Mary. The main plot involves her trying to get the wings back, during which she befriends the woman.

The major characters are limited to Monica, her family of two, and Mary. While the characters are reasonably interesting, we never learn very much about any of them. Some screen time is devoted to the difficulties caused by Monica having little money, but those don't really support the main story, nor are compelling on their own. One might guess that the religious topics have been the main focus of the writer.

Yet even if you're as non-religious as I am, Saint Monica has much appeal. It's a movie with a personality, and watching Monica wander around the city and deal with her child-sized problem in her quiet manner is enough in itself.

Elina (Natalie) and her little sister Irma (Tind) live in the rural northern Sweden of 1950s, of which the film offers a beautiful, melancholy view. Being a stubborn girl with a strong sense of right, Elina's compassion goes out for her class mate, a boy who only knows Finnish, while their stern, cold teacher only allows speaking Swedish. The teacher won't tolerate an argument, and the situation escalates until the justice prevails. Children will like the simple story, while adults can enjoy the beautiful cinematography. Natalie has expressive face that makes you feel for her, but her acting quite mediocre.

For a few words on the plot, see Jane Eyre (1996). This 1944 version is another adaptation of the same story, with Peggy playing young Jane Eyre, and Margaret playing older Jane's student Adele.

Margaret's role is slightly larger than Adele's in Anna Paquin's Jane Eyre, but still small and inconsequential. Margaret is much the same as in Meet Me in St. Louis: merry and cutesy. Elizabeth plays young Jane's friend Helen, and has few lines.

Jeffrey M. Anderson writes, "The standout is easily Peggy Ann Garner, whose extraordinarily unguarded face gives the young Jane a beautiful soul." For a child actress from the 40s, Peggy's acting is at times excellent, although the unrealistic, dramatic monologues typical of the era are not entirely absent. Her solemn style is a good fit for such monologues however, and I found myself even touched a few times – though I might not have been were she not so strikingly beautiful. Peggy looks closer to 10 than 12 years old, and perhaps part of her charm is her young appearance combined with slightly more mature composure and mannerisms.

The picture quality is surprisingly good for a movie so old. This adaptation has been very well received critically, and, in terms of young actresses, it is a very good exhibit from the earlier years of film.

A classic horror story with strong splatter elements, complete with zombies, the devil, and a crazy-brave main character. Immensely unsuitable for children, and for many adults as well for that matter. The film looks and sounds good, but lacks that something that would make it rise above the ordinary. The same could be said of Jodelle in her dual-role as a child-in-distress, and as something more sinister.

Dakota appears in the last four of ten ninety minute episodes of this Spielberg miniseries, which not so coincidentally happen to be the best episodes of the series. Dakota's character, Allie Keys, is the kind of role Dakota does best: intelligent, aware, and compassionate, while maintaining a youthful vulnerability. Although Dakota is present only in the last four episodes, she narrates the series throughout. This is requisite viewing for all Dakota fans. Dakota's performance as Allie impressed Spielberg and landed her the role as Rachel in War of the Worlds.