I’ve been vaguely aware of the fact that Brooke was a child star for many years now, but I had no idea just how exploitative the early years of her career were until I watched this documentary. The two-part series goes into unflinching detail on all the ways that she was failed, used, and left completely unprotected as a young girl by virtually every adult in her life. From controversial modeling gigs to wildly inappropriate film roles, Brooke was pushed and groomed into a highly sexualized celebrity stratosphere at far too young an age, all at the behest of her controlling, alcoholic mother.
My own mother was a Vogue subscriber when I was growing up, and so I remember my introduction to Brooke Shields being through her 2003 maternity cover. I also remember my mother explaining postpartum depression to me a couple of years later because on the book Brooke published on the topic. And, in an experience that I think many people around my age share, my strongest associations with Brooke as I grew up were through Disney’s Hannah Montana series, where she played Miley Stewart’s late mother.
While much of the documentary focuses on Brooke’s career and family dynamics specifically, the entire project works as a prism through which the audience is forcibly, vitally confronted with the fact that as horrifying as the misogynistic Hollywood machine was in the 70s and 80s, it remains just as bad now. Sure, there is different legislation in place these days that is supposed to protect minors on set, and we as a culture seem to share a much different opinion on child stars today than we did 40 years ago, but at the end of the day, the more things change, the more they stay exactly the same.
Brooke tells her story here with a level of grace and candor that is truly astounding considering the level of abuse she endured throughout her life and career. Director and documentarian Lana Wilson seems to have a unique knack for helping to tell the stories of high-profile women, with both Pretty Baby and Miss Americana serving as prime examples. This is a truly horrifying account of the cost of female celebrity, yet Wilson and Shields come together to tell it in such a sensitive, insightful way. By the end I was speechless.
I’ve been vaguely aware of the fact that Brooke was a child star for many years now, but I had no idea just how exploitative the early years of her career were until I watched this documentary. The two-part series goes into unflinching detail on all the ways that she was failed, used, and left completely unprotected as a young girl by virtually every adult in her life. From controversial modeling gigs to wildly inappropriate film roles, Brooke was pushed and groomed into a highly sexualized celebrity stratosphere at far too young an age, all at the behest of her controlling, alcoholic mother.
My own mother was a Vogue subscriber when I was growing up, and so I remember my introduction to Brooke Shields being through her 2003 maternity cover. I also remember my mother explaining postpartum depression to me a couple of years later because on the book Brooke published on the topic. And, in an experience that I think many people around my age share, my strongest associations with Brooke as I grew up were through Disney’s Hannah Montana series, where she played Miley Stewart’s late mother.
While much of the documentary focuses on Brooke’s career and family dynamics specifically, the entire project works as a prism through which the audience is forcibly, vitally confronted with the fact that as horrifying as the misogynistic Hollywood machine was in the 70s and 80s, it remains just as bad now. Sure, there is different legislation in place these days that is supposed to protect minors on set, and we as a culture seem to share a much different opinion on child stars today than we did 40 years ago, but at the end of the day, the more things change, the more they stay exactly the same.
Brooke tells her story here with a level of grace and candor that is truly astounding considering the level of abuse she endured throughout her life and career. Director and documentarian Lana Wilson seems to have a unique knack for helping to tell the stories of high-profile women, with both Pretty Baby and Miss Americana serving as prime examples. This is a truly horrifying account of the cost of female celebrity, yet Wilson and Shields come together to tell it in such a sensitive, insightful way. By the end I was speechless.
