Not suitable under 15; parental guidance to 15 (mature themes, teen alcohol use and sexual activity, coarse language and violence, problematic relationship patterns)
This topic contains:
Children under 15 | Not suitable due to mature themes, teen alcohol use and sexual activity, coarse language and violence, problematic relationship patterns, and particularly the way that some of these topics are portrayed and handled. |
Children aged 15 | Parental guidance recommended due to mature themes, teen alcohol use and sexual activity, coarse language and violence, and problematic relationship patterns. |
Children aged 16 and over | Ok for this age group, however, parents may want to take this movie as an opportunity to discuss issues like problematic drinking, sexual relationships, and jealous, controlling, and violent behaviour. |
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: | Kissing Booth, The |
Classification: | M |
Consumer advice lines: | Mature themes, coarse language, sexual references, violence |
Length: | 106 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Junior Year student, Elle (Joey King), has gotten herself into a tricky situation: from birth she has been best friends with Lee (Joel Courtney), but she has a crush on Lee’s older brother Noah (Jacob Elordi), who is extremely handsome, but also has anger issues and a reputation as a womaniser. And according to Elle’s and Lee’s friendship rules, siblings are off limits. After Elle and Noah share a kiss in a Kissing Booth at a school carnival, they confess their mutual feelings for each other and start a secret relationship. Elle has a lot to think about: Is bad-boy Noah being serious? And how is she supposed to tell Lee without ruining their friendship?
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.
Teenage romance; High school comedy; Rich kid lifestyle; L.A. lifestyle; Coming of age.
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 a considerable amount of 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.
There are numerous sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is frequent use of substances in this movie, including:
There is frequent coarse language in this movie, including:
The Kissing Booth is a teenage romcom based on teen author Beth Reekle’s book of the same title, packed with rich Los Angeles white kid and high school stereotypes and slapstick humour. This movie is also a sheep in wolf’s clothing because it is marketed as a sweet and funny teenage romcom, but presents with several issues that raise serious concern. The movie downplays excessive alcohol consumption amongst teenagers as a normal, harmless, and even desirable activity, e.g. hosting massive parties at home while parents are away or at a beach with no adult supervision, with a hangover being the worst consequence. There are also some sexist elements, e.g. a boy smacking Elle on her bottom as a direct response to her wearing a short skirt, or numerous occasions when Noah demonstrates jealous and controlling behaviour, either behind her back by telling other boys to stay away from her unless they want to end up with a broken nose, or to her face, by telling her what she can or cannot do. The movie also normalises teenage sexual activity (including watching porn), and being sexually active in public places including at school. Noah’s character and his relationship with Elle raise flags in regard to his aggressive, controlling, and bullying behaviour, the implication that his good looks and “sexy smirk” allow him to get away with unacceptable behaviour, and her hope that he can change. Because of this, along with frequent coarse language, this movie is not suitable for children under 16, and parents may still wish to debrief with their older offspring.
The main messages from this movie are that, really, you should not sneak around behind people’s backs and not lie to your best friend, at least not for too long, but that ultimately you have to just do what’s most important to you.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include (with the movie mainly serving as a guide how NOT to do things):
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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