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One Direction: This Is Us | 2013 | PG | - 3.2.3

"One Direction" is a British boy band comprised of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payn, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. This documentary follows them before and after they become famous, beginning with their hometown start in the UK to their competition on the "X-Factor" in 2010, and ultimately to their world tour in 2013. Also with Simon Cowell. Directed by Morgan Spurlock. [1:32]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - Crowds of thousands of girls of middle school and high school age in a dozen large cities scream extremely loudly and cry when they watch performances of "One Direction" or see them before performances and girls hold up signs that read, "I Love You" and "Marry Me," and they jump up and down: we see bosoms bouncing and some wear short-shorts while others wear clingy leggings; some girls wear scoop necked, sleeveless tops that reveal cleavage and some of the tops reveal bare abdomens; one girl's T-shirt rises up partially to reveal her navel and a girl wears a clingy, deep V-necked top that reveals a lot of bouncing cleavage and her bra straps as she jumps repeatedly. As boy band members stand close on stage, two of them pull down the jeans of a third, exposing his black biker short-shorts and thighs briefly.
 Two dozen scenes feature one to three members of a 5-member boy band shirtless as they get dressed for performances or rehearsals, including full chest and back views; one of the singers has tribal tattoos across his chest and abdomen while two other singers have designs tattooed on their forearms and upper arms and one singer wears a shirt with cutouts baring his shoulders and pectorals, including nipples. A male soccer team wears close-fitting, very short shorts that expose thighs up to the hip. During one rehearsal, male singers wear blue bathrobes (baring their lower legs) and several times, they wear tank tops and loose knee-length shorts. Four bedroom scenes feature one of two men in bed, covered below the waist with quilts, but exposing bare and tattooed chests and arms.
 As a joke, a boy band singer caresses a band mate's face during the rehearsal of a love song. During a performance, a male singer holds his crotch several times.
 A girl on camera says that a boy band loves her, even though they have never met. A song's lyrics include, "She got the way to drive me wild," another states, "Let's go crazy, and call it love. Let's get some and live while we're young." One man tells a second man that he looks like a sexy secretary when he wears black and red glasses. A man says his first kiss with a girl was against a tree beyond a pond and was pretty steamy.

VIOLENCE/GORE 2 - In a flashback, five teen boys each cry after losing on a musical reality show.
 Crowds of teen girls in a Tokyo street bang on limo windows with band members inside and later, chase the singers into a store, where management locks the doors; pressing against the doors and screaming, the girls are held back and finally turned away by police officers.
 Two men go fishing, hook a fish and pull the hook out as they grimace (we see no blood) and the fish flops around; later, one man hooks the other man's behind accidentally and has difficulty removing the hook.
 A man punches several times into the palm of an older man holding up a hand as a target. A male boy band singer playfully slaps another boy in the face at a rehearsal. Two male singers lightly slap each other on the top of the head in a taxi. A man grabs a young man off a moving skateboard (no one is injured). A male singer sticks his forefinger up the nostril of another male band mate.
 Five male singers play soccer in an empty arena and one ducks a fast soccer ball to the head; in this and other arenas, they drive forklifts down back hallways, race in golf carts around arenas, and throw bottles of water at one another (some bottles burst) while an older man (manager) says that the young men are playing and a little into anarchy and he picks one singer up and carries him to a performance area. A man says that a teen girl grabbed his ear and he had trouble dislodging her. A younger man drives his dad's tractor into a tree, but he is not injured.
 A band member disguises himself as an older Scottish-accented arena guard and talks to audience members as they arrive and he shouts loudly that the band and the arena are "crap" and that he quits; people stare or laugh as he stalks off. An elderly couple limps across a street and the man uses a cane; when the man drops the cane and another elderly man picks it up for him, the man with the cane and the woman (two younger men disguised) jump up and down and dance, then run away; other men and women on the sidewalk stand and stare at them. A man disguises himself as an older man with a neck brace and chases people, asking them to hug him and they run away.
 A man accidentally breaks two china cups when they fall off his head during a balancing trick. In two performances, several flashes of fire shoot up in the background; in one of the shows, confetti and digital icons fly out into the audience, including airplanes, space shuttles and pink smiley faces with pigtails. A photo of a little boy dressed as a vampire with blood dripping at his lips and fangs appears briefly.
 In a band bus, a man says, "Who farted?" and another man says, "Oh my God" (at the smell) and later, one male singer says a room smells like "man" or a combination of "boy" and "man," referencing the odor.

LANGUAGE 3 - 4 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, exclamations (shut-up), name-calling (crazy, insane, weird, strange, stupid, dirt-bag), stereotypical references to teens, boy bands, young female fans, parents, 8 religious exclamations (e.g. OMG, Jesus, Holy Moly, Lord).

SUBSTANCE USE - A neuroscientist holds a model of the human brain and points to animation lighting up a portion in the lower center where the music of a boy band creates an influx of dopamine, and a scientist says that singers make listeners feel good ("like a drug" is implied). Five female servers shake cocktail shakers at a refreshment shop in Tokyo (we hear sounds of ice shaking together, but we never see the contents of the shakers), and a father says that the only recreation he knew about and could offer his teen son was drinking and snooker (we see no drinking).

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Reality shows, female fan behavior, disappointment, determination, planning, success, generosity, friendship, family.

MESSAGE - A boy band can be wholesome, but also have flaws.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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