HBO's Showbiz Kids tries to expose the dark side of child stardom, but it struggles to go deep into any particular issue

Mashable

Alex Winter of Bill & Ted directed the HBO film inspired by his experiences as an up-and-coming child actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Several years ago, Winter revealed he was sexually abused as a child star. Winter's Showbiz Kids' subjects include the late Cameron Boyce, Wil Wheaton, Todd Bridges, Henry Thomas, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mara Wilson and Evan Rachel Wood. "But Winter could have given further exposure to the lack of protections child actors receive by also interviewing outside experts and adults from within the entertainment industry who had witnessed abuse firsthand," says Brooke Bajgrowicz. "These noticeably missing perspectives could have affirmed the problematic treatment of children in entertainment by bringing even more evidence to the table. Perhaps they could have even presented solutions. While Showbiz Kids misses this opportunity, one of its bigger successes is the way in which it tackles the emotional abuse young actors are subjected to in Hollywood. Some of the most compelling anecdotes surrounding this topic come from Wheaton. Once, he was bullied for being unable to keep his teeth clean while taking a bite of a brownie. Another time, critics including the famed Roger Ebert damaged his confidence by scorning his films as harshly as he would an adult's. Accounts like these show how Hollywood has been known to treat its younger stars as commodities rather than kids. And though, once again, the documentary doesn't round out these tales with outside insight, stories are where change starts." ALSO: Why Alex Winter didn't make his child actor story part of the documentary.