Showbiz Kids is my latest review. It's a documentary without an arc. It has no beginning, no middle, and no clear-cut end. Still, I must say that every child actor and their parents needs to give it a look-see. It might prevent Hollyweird from taking another one down.

So OK, "Showbiz" is a docu that doesn't need flash or overindulgence to get its point across. It's just a self-effacing portrait of troupers recalling what it was like to work in the film industry via a fairly young age. Evan Rachel Wood, Milla Jovovich, and Wil Wheaton put their two cents in. Oh and Todd Bridges gets thrown into the mix cause well, you just knew he'd be included.

Showbiz Kids gives us the usual interviews and the usual archive footage. But by hook or crook, it still hits you pretty hard. At 95 minutes "Showbiz" with its "call backs" as subsequent metaphor, just gets darker and darker (and darker). The rabbit hole here is uh, a real pisser.

The director of Showbiz Kids is none other than Alex Winter (Bill from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure). Winter skimps on the usual documentary style as he goes for talk show moments from stars a la "where are they now?" Alex doesn't want these laddies or lassies to recall the good times of being on screen. He rather wants them to warn and heed the dangers of being a child star cooked by the cold stodgy-s of sunny LA.

I'm a film buff, I love movies, and I when I write reviews, I tell it like it is. But I have sympathy for what these people have gone through with fame, haggled money, and such. Yeah I've seen some of their flicks and I've disliked some of their stuff but I've only viewed it from the outside. For that I am sorry. These "kids are alright" in my book.

I found this movie quite interesting as it interviwed several former child stars as they discussed their experiences in show biz at a young age.

The documentary covers a lot od familiar territory we have heard before. It does a great job of pointing out some stage parents who may have pused their kids into show biz to live vicariously through their kids, how the constant interviews consume so much of the family's free time and how odd it seems that the kids would spend most of their time working instead of having a childhood.

It goes further discussing the pitfalls of fame and the effect it had on many young stars such as the uncomfortable invasion of privacy. It mentions briefly the exploitation that young stars could be exposed to. It mentions the effect that negative film reviews have on the child star as criticism can be taken personally. The film doesn't use this example, but think of Star Wars - The Phantom Menace and how Jake LLoyd was personally pointed out as the cause of the film's failure.

There are a few points where the film could have gone further that would have improved the movie; why do some become successful adult actors while others don't (think Freddie Highmore vs Corey Feldman)? The movie points out many child actors who run into problems later in life. The film could have addressed the issue of how Hollywood might, or moght not be the cause of these kids problems.

The interview with Todd Bridges mentions his family got torn apart by greed over the money coming in. Yet many other child star's families had serious issues before getting in to show business, which the film doesn't touch on (when it could have gone in to more detail). Corey Feldman details this in his autobiography, which isn't covered in the film.

A final topic could have been brought up - what about former child stars who felt it was a more positive than negative effect ?

Otherwise, the film is a somewhat insightful look at child stardom.

This really was a pleasant surprise, and I found it to be quite insightful. With the exception of Jada Pinkett Smith, I found the former Showbiz kids who participated to be very direct and forthcoming without all the drama. I was particularly impressed by what Evan Rachel Wood had to say, and she was extremely articulate. I really wonder how many former child stars were initially interviewed for this movie, but were then cut because they weren't very forthcoming about their experiences. It can't be that these were the only people they interviewed, and they all just happened to be so interesting and forthcoming.