Unlike the MPAA we do not assign
one
inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE
and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest,
depending on quantity and context.
An 11-year-old girl (Keke Palmer) attending an inner-city school where it isn't cool to be a "brainiac," has a knack for spelling. When her principal (Curtis Armstrong) sees her talent, he and a colleague (Laurence Fishburne) try to convince her to participate in a regional spelling bee. Also with Angela Bassett, and J.R. Villarreal. Directed by Doug Atchison. [1:52]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - A boy kisses a girl on the cheek and a girl kisses a boy on the cheek. A girl tells another girl that a boy is "hot." A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage in several scenes.
the review continues below...
VIOLENCE/GORE 2 - Two girls threaten and tease another girl, and they shove her and tussle. ► A woman grabs her daughter's arm and yells at her, a man and a woman yell at a girl in several scenes, a woman yells at her son when he is brought home by the police, and a man yells at his son and pressures him about winning a competition. ► We hear that a man was shot to death, and we hear that a girl died from an illness. ► A character says, "I may puke."
SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks alcohol and a woman smokes a cigarette.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Death of a parent, death of a child, murder, intelligence, not fitting in, winning/losing, confidence, goals, loneliness, grief, parental pressure, socioeconomic differences, inadequacy, living vicariously through your children, separation/divorce, disappointment, publicity, celebrity, sexual harassment, cheating, racism.
MESSAGE - Convincing yourself that you are going to fail is a self-fulfilling prophecy and brings about failure.
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we
started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were
not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many
older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please
keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period.
While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are
limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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