My review

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

The documentary covers a lot of familiar territory we have heard before. It does a great job of pointing out some stage parents who may have pushed their kids into show biz to live vicariously through them, 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. One winces when you see an aspiring young actor - Marc Slater - go thru several auditions and the interviewer asks Marc if he really wants to be doing this and his mom doing the answering.

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. The film also could have mentioned what happens when the reviews are positive and gives inflated egos.

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 might not be the cause of these kids problems. Why do some kids get into trouble (drugs, legal issues) and others don't?

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. The film doesn't go into this much, but it could mention that many of the troubled former child actors had a poor family life prior to getting in to acting.

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.