Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields

This is a wonderful, interesting, and informative documentary about beautiful Brooke Shields. Gorgeous from birth, joined at the hip with an alcoholic mother, sexualized at an early age, in the public eye from childhood- she somehow has turned out to be a well adjusted wife, mother, and performer. None of it was easy.

The story of her horrific post-partum depression is heartbreaking. Her story of Zefferelli twisting her toe trying to get a look of ecstasy on her face is hilarious.

What saved her, I think, was truly not being sexualized in her private life, her intelligence, attending Princeton, and her humor. (Trying to find work in show biz after college - "Um, is that Brook with or without an E?")

Enlightening and inspiring, Shields is the true adult daughter of an alcoholic who, frankly, could be a big mess today.

Its hard to give this any less than a 10 - for Brooke's willingness to share her story with the world - knowing a lot of people are going to have a lot to say.

The challenge comes when things are reviewed in retrospect. The media industry allowed and encouraged the distribution of Blue Lagoon and Pretty Baby and the success of those films encouraged the genre to grow more. Even Roman Polanski remains a celebrated director in spite of his pleading guilty to terrible crimes again minors.

This is a tough one to gauge - the Kardashian's aren't far off from the reality here and they are thriving.

The good news in all of this is that Brooke's mother insisted Brooke stay in college - and Brooke admits that was a critical turning point in her own life - where she learned to be her own voice. If her mother was so obsessed with controlling her - I don't know if that encouragement would have happened.

I wonder what her mother would say now - looking back on the explicit sexuality of Brooke's earlier films. As a young teenager, Blue Lagoon was one of my favorite films but watching those film selects now - as an adult - I am completely horrified.

All the best to Brooke - she seems like a strong and wonderful woman.

I've so disconnected her comfortable present-day persona from the sexualized media sensation she was as a child that I never gave any thought what it took to make such a dramatic life adjustment. Director Lana Wilson and Shields herself don't hold back in sharing personal revelations that include a previously undisclosed rape, postpartum depression (and that public fight with Tom Cruise), her dysfunctional relationship with Andre Agassi, and her largely fictionalized one with Michael Jackson. No surprise that her obsessive mother, a raging alcoholic, takes center stage, but this penetrating two-part 2023 documentary doesn't dwell on Brooke as a victim. Losing her virginity to Dean Cain (before becoming Superman and a fervent Trump supporter) and finding out Laura Linney has been a lifelong friend since childhood were just icing on the cake. There's a great dinner table conversation toward the end where Shields discusses whether her grown daughters with similar aspirations had any interest in seeing their mom's early movies. The answer was a definitive no as they can't reconcile her sexual exploitation as a child. A full circle moment.

Very insightful although parts were hard to watch. I am writing this review only to speak of the documentaries glaring problem. Some of the people speaking for Brooke were very adamant to soley blame men for her sexual exploitation and yes men should not be casting children in such provocative roles *but* the root of Brookes exploitation was primarily caused by her mother. Jobs aren't forced and the mother accepted these inappropriate jobs for her daughter. This is mostly glossed over and instead her actions are excused by harping on the fact that her mother was the "victim of a hard life", I would have liked the documentary much more if these speakers were not in it as their opinions are irresponsible and hurt feminism.

I am about 10 years older than Brooke and I remember her early movies and ads for Calvin Klein. I never saw Pretty Baby, Blue Lagoon or the Zeffirelli movie. I was creeped out by the kiddie-porn aspect back then and her mom-manager. I want to say as much as everyone hammered her mother's bad choices, her father's total emotional absence is given a pass by the world. I had respect for her when she went to Princeton and always seemed to handle herself well as an adult. I really enjoyed her clap back at Tom Cruise - as he spewed his cult nonsense. I really appreciated the first two episodes and will definitely see the rest of the series. She survived and kept herself together and that is an enormous accomplishment. The flow of the documentary is great. It addresses the systemic misogyny in our country with color and light which will allow us to look directly at it and give us the words to express it.