Not recommended under 12, parental guidance recommended 12- 14 due to disturbing themes and scenes. Lacks interest for younger children.
This topic contains:
Children under 12 | Not recommended due to disturbing themes and scenes. Lacks interest for younger children |
Children 12 to 14 | Parental guidance recommended due to disturbing themes and scenes |
Children aged 14 and over | 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: | Boychoir |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Mild bullying violence and themes |
Length: | 103 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Stet Tate (Garrett Wareing) is an 11 year old boy living with his troubled single mother Debbie (Erica Piccininni). Stet finds himself alone when his mother is killed in a car crash and he then meets his father (Josh Lucas) for the first time. His father has another family who know nothing of Stet, and he doesn’t want them to find out, so Stet is sent to board at the American Boy Choir School, the top choir school in the country.
Stet has a gift for singing but he finds it very hard to conform to the rigours of boarding school. The choirmaster, Mr Carvelle (Dustin Hoffman) recognises both the talent and the conflict in Stet, and pushes him hard to achieve his potential. Meanwhile Stet has to contend with bullying from his roommate Raffi (River Alexander) and the jealousy of top boy Devon (Joe West).
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.
Single parenting; alcohol abuse; death of a parent; abandonment by a parent; bullying
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 aged five to eight, 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.
Children in this age group could also be disturbed by the above mentioned scenes and 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.
Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes.
Apple computers
None of concern
None of concern
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Boychoir is a drama about young boys at a boarding school whose main focus is choir singing. Lovers of classical choir music will enjoy this movie and there are some great performances from Dustin Hoffman and Kathy Bates as the school principal. The film is not recommended for children under 12 and parental guidance is recommended for the 12 to 14 age group. Stet’s family situation, with a father who doesn’t want to know about him and an alcoholic mother, and the bullying at the school, result in some intense scenes which may disturb primary school children and young teens, particularly those who identify with Stet’s situation. The film is likely to lack interest for very young viewers.
The main messages from this movie are:
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
Parents may also wish to discuss the following issues:
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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