The Help is an emotional, heart-felt story, based on the New York Times best- selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960’s, this is a story which revolves around the lives of African-American maids, and their white employers. The focus is primarily on two black maids, Aibileen(Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer) who reveal their horrific stories to Skeeter (Emma Stone), an ambitious young white writer. The women openly speak about their lives as maids; they cook, they clean, they shop for groceries, and they raise their employer’s children. The two women develop a special friendship with Skeeter, as they secretly work on a writing project that could risk their lives, while hoping to expose the truth; race in the South during the 1960’s. This is a powerful and inspiring movie about courage, and doing the right thing.

Rating: Five out of five buckets
Release Date: December 6, 2011
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 14+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language

See a clip of my review here!

Talking Points:

It was heartbreaking to see how cruel these white, pretentious women were to their help. These women had their maids take care of their children, (which the maids did in a loving tender way), but they demanded that separate restrooms were to be built for the maids.

There were some humorous parts in the movie. For those of you that read the book you may remember the “pie incident.” I don’t want to give too much away, but Minny baked a pie for Hilly (an awful women who just fired Minny). Minny added a “special ingredient.” Though disgusting, it’s quite funny.

The movie was 137 minutes, which sounds long, but it’s not. With the intriguing story, you don’t even realize the time. There are many sub-plots as well, which add interest to the story line.

The acting was absolutely amazing, to name a few actors; Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

Sexual Content: Mild

• Passionate kissing.

• One character wears revealing low cut outfits.

Violent Content: Moderate

• Minny’s husband was abusive. We don’t see the abuse, but we hear violent arguments that are disturbing. In one scene her black eye is revealed.

• A police officer arrests a maid, he is forceful and abusive. He hits her with his baton…it’s a very brief scene, but disturbing.

• One character has a miscarriage, we see her on the bathroom floor, surrounded by blood.

Crude or Profane Language: Moderate

• The n-word, d-word, a-word, h-word are used several times throughout the film.

Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate

• Many characters drink and smoke in social settings.

The Help is an eye-opener, it’s hard to believe that people could treat other people with such heartbreaking disrespect. The subject matter won’t appeal to young kids, however I know many teenage girls that have read the book, and can’t wait to see the movie. It will be an eye-opener for them as well, but a good lesson.

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The Soloist is based on a true story about Nathaniel Ayers, (Jamie Foxx) a man who developed schizophrenia in his 2nd year of studying music at Juillard, and ended up homeless in downtown Los Angeles. While on the streets, Ayers meets Steve Lopez(Robert Downy Jr.) a Los Angeles columnist who discovers Ayers playing his violin on the streets of LA. Initially, the journalist was intrigued with Ayers’ music ability, and thinks of this homeless man as just a story idea, but then a unique friendship is formed, one that changes both their lives.

Rating: Two out of five buckets
Release Date: August 8, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 16+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Excessive
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Excessive

See the trailer here!

Talking Points:

Though the classical music throughout the movie is beautiful, the movie is based on the relationship the musician developed with the journalist. The trailer emphasizes more of the music aspect of the movie, which may mislead people. “The Soloist” has more in common with “Pursuit of Happiness” and “A Beautiful Mind.”

When I walked out of the movie I was thinking kids won’t like it at all. Then I interviewed the only child in the theater, a 13 year old girl, who said she loved the movie. She wanted to see it because she likes Robert Downey Jr., and loved him in “Ironman.” Though this girl loved the movie, I think the majority of kids won’t like it because of the mature subject matter.

The target audience is adults, though the serious minded teenagers will find the movie interesting and inspiring.

Lopez received a huge response from his readers. Readers did things such as: delivering a cello for Ayers to play, helped him with housing, medical treatment, and even lessons from a Philharmonic member. No matter how much help that Ayers received, Lopez discovers that nothing can truly cure Ayers, except by being a good, loyal, friend. That’s the main message of the movie.

Sexual Content: Mild

• There are several homeless women who wear revealing clothes.

Violent Content: Excessive

• We see a crime scene which shows a lot of blood.
• Nathanial attacks a reporter, it’s brutal and disturbing.
• Police are shown arresting people on skid row.

Crude or Profane Language: Excessive

• The f-word, s-word, h-word, d-word, b-word, are used throughout the movie.

Drug and Alcohol Content: Excessive

• There is drinking and smoking throughout the film

It may be disturbing for most kids. The movie shows the other side of glamorous L.A. It highlights the lives of hundred’s of homeless people and families in L.A’s skid row, which includes some harsh profanity, and images of drug use and drinking.

I read that the co-producer (Gary Foster) said “We felt that in the right hands this could become a film about love, about inspiration, about the power of how people can help each other. That’s what we wanted.”

Overall it’s a wonderful, inspirational movie. From a mom’s perspective, the mature subject matter, and disturbing images, will not interest most kids, and it’s also not appropriate for most kids, therefore I’m giving it 2 buckets.

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This is the fascinating story about Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a sophomore at Harvard. It all started one fall night in 2003 when Mark’s girlfriend broke up with him at a bar. Very angry and upset, Mark went to his computer, and started venting on a blog about this girl. He ended up creating an online game throughout the university. After that, he was known throughout the school, and was asked by two fellow students to help make a campus-only social network. Mark took their idea, and made his own site, which initially was called thefacebook.com. With the financial help of his best friend, and the help of the founder of Napster (Sean Parker), within six months, Facebook became worldwide, with 500 million users. However, Mark’s wealth and success, eventually lead to personal and legal complications.

Rating: Five out of five buckets
Release Date: January 11, 2011
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: Adults
Sexual Content: Excessive
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Excessive

See a clip of my review here!

Talking Points:

The movie was based on a best selling book called The Accidental Billionaire, which was written with the help of Eduardo, Marks friend and CFO.

The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the TV show West Wing, added a nice blend of comedy throughout all the drama. I liked the flashbacks and flash-forwards that were shown during the legal proceedings.

The acting was amazing, especially Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark Zuckerberg.

I read that the “movie is based on real-world research, though it is a work of fiction.” In the movie Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed as an arrogant, nerdy genius. I’m hoping that’s not how he really is, being a Facebook “friend.” I also wonder if this will impact Facebook.

Sexual Content: Excessive, There were many sexual scenes, just to name a few:

We see college girls dancing in their bra and underwear.
One women took off her shirt so people could snort cocaine off her body.
Mark and Eduardo, and their dates, end up in the bathroom stalls, we see pants unzipped….etc.

Profanity: There were a lot of swear words used throughout the movie.

I often mentioned a lesson or message from a movie, whether I like it or not, but I’m not sure there is one here, there’s not even a hero in the movie! But, if your teenager happens to see it, you could talk about the fact that greed and selfishness can destroy a person, and that money and material possessions aren’t what’s important in life. Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history.

I found the movie to be very entertaining and interesting. However this is NOT a movie for kids. There’s a lot of dialogue and legal proceedings that kids may find boring. More importantly, with the heavy sexual, drug and alcohol content, I don’t know if parents would even want their teenagers seeing it. I do think that most adults ages 18 and up, will enjoy the movie.

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