Not suitable under 12; parental guidance to 13 (violence, themes)
This topic contains:
Children under 12 | Not suitable due to violence and themes. |
Children aged 12–13 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence and themes. |
Children over the age of 13 | Ok for this age group. |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | An American Pickle |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild themes, violence and coarse language |
Length: | 89 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
In 1919, Eastern Europe was a grim place for Russian Jews, who were often attacked by Cossacks. So, Herschel Greenbaum (Seth Rogen) takes his wife Sarah (Sarah Snook) and they flee to America. Herschel finds a job in a local pickle factory, where, unfortunately, he falls into a vat of pickled fish. This goes unnoticed and Herschel remains there, preserved in the pickle brine, for 100 years. That is, until two young boys discover Herschel when they follow their drone into the abandoned factory and open the vat.
Herschel wakes up to modern day Brooklyn. He’s taken into hospital where they find his only living relative, his great grandson Ben Greenbaum (Seth Rogen). Ben initially takes Herschel in but they soon fall out as friends due to their opposing views on just about everything. Herschel makes money by doing what he knows, pickling fish and selling them, and he rises in notoriety while Ben struggles to make a living. Ben plots Herschel’s downfall by using social media as a way to expose the outmoded values Herschel still holds. Herschel is eventually driven out of America and escapes to Canada where he and Ben manage to reconcile their differences.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Loss of parents; Religious values and beliefs; Religious intolerance; Hate speech.
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
There is some violence in this movie including:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Nothing further of concern.
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
An American Pickle is a comedy that reflects on the changing values between the early 20th and 21st centuries. Herschel is a character used to speaking his mind and, using hate speech, he attacks a lot of current values such as equality of gender, race and religion. It refers to the use of free speech and the ‘right to offend’. As such, younger viewers could misunderstand a lot of the themes and the movie is therefore not recommended for children under 12. Parental guidance is also recommended for children aged 12 – 13 given some of the extreme comments that are made in the movie.
The main messages from this movie are the importance of family and the need to compromise to achieve success.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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