What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that, as the film interrogates urban fears, violence, and racism, the language, particularly the use of racial epithets, is rough. The film also features several violent scenes, including a carjacking, a pedestrian hit by a car, a five-year-old child shot by a handgun (with her parents watching), and several car crashes. Policemen, detectives, district attorneys, and an insurance adjuster prove untrustworthy; characters steal cars, do drugs, drink, smoke cigarettes, and have sex (including implied oral sex in a car and a cop putting his hands on a woman's private parts, in front of her upset husband, under the guise of "patting her down.")
- Families can talk about the film's representations of racism, anger, and fearfulness, embodied and acted on by nearly every character. Families might also think about the ways that current urban and mass-mediated experiences lead to alienation and cultural divisions. Families might also discuss the several family situations, in particular, the five-year-old girl's trust in her caring father, and adult children trying to look after aging parents. How do family relationships affect your trust of others? How do some characters use aggression (verbal and physical) to establish their sense of identity?