Going for Gold

image for Going for Gold

Short takes

Not recommended under 5 (lack of interest)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Going for Gold
  • a review of Going for Gold completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 13 March 2018.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not recommended due to lack of interest
Children aged 5 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

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: Going for Gold
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: General
Length: 93 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Seventeen year old Emma (Kelli Berglund) is used to moving around the world with her father who is in the air force. Sad to leave California, she is now moving to Adelaide, Australia. They are welcomed into their home by fellow air force officer Susan (Jo Stone) and her daughter Hannah (Emily Morris) who live next door. Hannah and Emily soon become friends and Hannah persuades Emily to join her gymnastics group, which has recently diminished due to a group of girls leaving to follow Abi (Elysia Markou) and Charlotte (Daisy Anderson) into cheerleading.

Emma has not previously done gymnastics but she was in a cheerleading squad back in the US and manages to convince Hannah’s group to also become cheerleaders. They go on to compete in the National Competitions against Abi’s group.

Themesinfo

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.

Cheerleading; sport; competition

Use of violenceinfo

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 no physical violence but a lot of verbal hostility and nastiness between the competing cheerleading groups.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

Nothing of concern

Aged five to eightinfo

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.

Nothing of concern

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

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.

Nothing of concern

Thirteen and overinfo

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 of concern

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Emma goes to visit the Gorge Wildlife Park.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Two teen couples kiss briefly.

Nudity and sexual activity

Girls wearing brief costumes and heavy make up for cheerleading.

Use of substances

Nothing of concern

Coarse language

There is some name-calling such as “losers”

In a nutshell

Going for Gold is a sports drama about cheerleading. It is filmed in South Australia with a few nice screen shots of Adelaide and environs, but is badly let down by its poor acting, script and lack of storyline. It lacks interest for children under five, but primary school children and young teens might enjoy the gymnastic and dance sequences.

The main messages from this movie are the importance of working together as a group and to think about how one’s actions affect others.

  • Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include team work.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Why were Abi and Charlotte such nasty girls? Do girls always have to be jealous and competitive?  Did Abi get what she deserved?
  • Should young girls need to wear heavy make-up and sexualised costumes to be involved in competitive sport?