What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Kings of Summer is a coming-of-age dramedy about freshmen/sophomore-age high school students. Like Stand by Me, the strong language is the main reason for the movie's "R" rating. Words include "f--k," "s--t," "c--k," and "c--t." There's also some teen drinking, mainly at a big party early in the film, and then some casual beer-sipping later on. There's a fairly intense scene of a character catching and skinning a rabbit, which appears real. Characters often fight and argue as well. Though there are some romantic stirrings between teens, there's little more than flirting (older characters are seen kissing), though one scene does suggest masturbation in the shower (nothing graphic is shown). Overall, the characters mean well (despite some iffy decisions/actions), and the film has worthy messages about friendship and self-sufficiency.
- Families can talk about whether strong language is/should be enough of a reason to restrict teens from seeing a movie about characters their age. Teens: How prevalent is swearing in your life? Does it make a movie more or less relatable to you when it has that kind of language?
- Kings of Summer shows teens drinking in two scenes. Could the movie have done without these scenes? Are there consequences for the drinking? Are they realistic?
- What's the relationship between the teen characters and their parents? Are these relationships realistic or exaggerated for humor?
- What's the most important thing the characters learn in this story?