Not all the stories in “Showbiz Kids” are as black and white as Leave it to Beaver.

| Oct 12, 2022

Seem[s] like it's pulling its punches.

| Feb 2, 2021

Recommended viewing for both parents of kids with showbiz ambitions, and the kids themselves.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2020

Showbiz Kids explores its handful of interview subjects with patience and sensitivity, offering a more intimate look at what has sadly become a familiar story.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 27, 2020

We should all know by now that Hollywood glamour is a phony facade. Showbiz Kids digs deeper into that truism, Winter piecing together a collage of stories adding up to one big cautionary tale.

| Aug 6, 2020

A deceptively mundane title for a subtle, nuanced film.

| Aug 6, 2020

Their well-being is just as important as the well-being of non-famous children. And though Showbiz Kids might be tedious at times, its recognition of the mistreatment of young actors cannot go unnoticed.

| Jul 30, 2020

Consistently engaging, it's also massively depressing, particularly when the subjects talk about the price they paid to maintain a career.

| Jul 30, 2020

Documentaries about kids in showbiz tend to focus on the more salacious details. Director Alex Winters looks deeper into the lives of the young stars.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jul 30, 2020

Showbiz Kids takes the interviews it has and weaves them together into a concise narrative ... People certainly won't get bored watching this documentary, but people will certainly wonder about all the information that wasn't revealed.

| Jul 30, 2020

A reminder that though it's a horribly precarious path, Hollywood would be a far poorer place without its preternaturally gifted young actors.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 26, 2020

What [Alex Winter has] made here is a perceptive, sensitive film in which actors tell their own stories - some sad, many simply complicated.

| Jul 21, 2020

The stories contained in Showbiz Kids are sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, and they all will leave you thinking about the enormous pressures and dangers that are put on child actors.

| Jul 17, 2020

Child stardom now feels like one of the last aspirations of a decadent, no-future America. And Showbiz Kids is an invaluable primer of its risks and rewards.

| Jul 17, 2020

A conventional but important doc, especially for those families who dream of fame for their talented tots.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 17, 2020

Showbiz Kids is an interesting watch for everybody, especially film critics and the parents who dream of their children's fame.

| Jul 17, 2020

It's an engaging documentary, but when it ended, I wished it had been a docuseries.

| Jul 16, 2020

Framed from the hindsight of #MeToo, the stories told by Milla Jovovich and Evan Rachel Wood are particularly harrowing...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2020

Compelling HBO Documentary takes us through the lives of kid actors from triumphs to tragedy with excellent interviews charting the course of these lives.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 15, 2020

HBO's transfixing documentary details, in shocking frankness, the difficulties that many actors and actresses we saw grow up on-screen faced as their careers were just beginning.

| Original Score: 80/100 | Jul 15, 2020