Roma | 2018 | R | – 7.4.5

Why is “Roma” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “graphic nudity, some disturbing images, and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes full male nudity and an implied sex scene, a murder by gunshot and a couple of dead bodies after a protest turns violent, a labor and birth of a stillborn infant, a near drowning of two children, and 4 F-words. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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Director Alfonso Cuarón’s autobiographical drama chronicles his upper-middle-class family life in the Roma district of Mexico City during 1970-71: As the country is rocked by political turmoil, the family is also facing their own challenges when the father leaves with his mistress and the young maid (Yalitza Aparicio) that takes care of everyone becomes pregnant after a brief, ill-fated relationship. Also with Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey, Carlos Peralta, Marco Graf, Daniela Demesa, Nancy García García, Verónica García, Andy Cortés, Fernando Grediaga, Jorge Antonio Guerrero and José Manuel Guerrero Mendoza. In Spanish with English subtitles and a few lines of dialogue are spoken in other languages without translation. [Running Time: 2:15]

Roma SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A man and a woman are shown in a room with the woman in bead wearing a slip (cleavage and bare shoulders are seen); the man is fully nude as he demonstrates martial arts moves in an extended scene (we clearly see genitals, his bare chest, abdomen and buttocks) and he climbs into the bed with the woman and kisses her hands (sex is implied).
► A man and woman kiss passionately in a dark movie theater; the woman tells him that she thinks she is pregnant and he leaves and does not return. A wife hugs and forcefully kisses her husband as he leaves. We see a man holding hands with his mistress. A man hugs a woman from behind and she shoves him away as he says, “I know you need it,” and then stumbles away (he appears drunk) saying, “You’re not even that hot.” Two ducks are shown having sex as people walk past and around them.
► A woman showers and we see her bare shoulders and cleavage. A woman changes her clothes after work and we see her wearing a full slip that reveals cleavage and legs to the knees. A few women wearing bikinis dance on a TV show (cleavage, bare abdomens, backs and legs to the hips are seen). A woman removes a boy’s shirt to help him dress and we see his bare chest and abdomen. Several women at a party wear dresses that reveal cleavage, bare backs, abdomens and legs. A man wears skintight outfit and we see the outlines of his pectorals and genital area. We see a woman’s pregnant abdomen in an exam room in a hospital as medical personnel tries to hear the baby’s heartbeat. A doctor asks a woman about her menstrual period and sexual activity during an exam to determine if she is pregnant; the woman sits on an exam table and puts her feet in stirrups with her legs covered by a sheet.
► Two women talk about a man calling one of them and on the phone and they laugh about dating. A woman tells another woman that she is pregnant. Boys joke about a hill having a skirt and that they will peek under the hill’s skirt to see her “panties.” Two boys look at magazines at a sidewalk newsstand and they talk about women they are seeing on the pages (we do not see any pictures).

Roma VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 - We hear people yelling and screaming in the streets as gunfire rings out and a man and a woman run into a store (the man has blood on his head); three men with guns run after them and one man shoots the first man (he falls to the floor with a bloody wound and the woman screams) as another gunman points his gun at a pregnant woman.
► A woman holds a dead man on the street and we see blood on his shirt. A woman delivers a stillborn infant (we see the child covered with fluid and blood and the umbilical cord is cut) and we see medical personnel performing CPR without result; the infant is wrapped and the mother holds her while crying until the staff prepares the child by wrapping her completely in a cloth.
► Two children get caught in waves and nearly drown until a woman retrieves them and they make it to shore safely. A man hugs a woman from behind and she shoves him away as he says, "I know you need it," and then stumbles away (he appears drunk) saying, "You're not even that hot."
► A fire starts in a wooded area near a home and people run with buckets of water to try to douse it; we see charred brush the next day. A woman drives a car between two trucks stopped on a road and scratches the sides of the car badly (we see the scratches and dents and a strip of metal dangles off the side of the car. A man and a woman each pull a large car into a narrow driveway in several scenes and they each hit the side walls with the side mirror and scratch the paint and bumpers causing varying degrees of damage (the woman appears to be drunk in one scene).
► An earthquake rumbles and people in a hospital scramble to take newborns out of the nursery; we see a premature infant in an incubator still in the room and the top of the incubator is covered with rubble. We hear gunshots in a wooded area and see several people holding and firing guns into the distance as children run around playing.
► Two boys argue and wrestle; they chase each other inside a house and one throws a heavy object at the other, who ducks and the object breaks a hole in a glass door and breaks the windshield of a car parked outside. A man threatens to beat a pregnant woman and "little one" and lunges toward her yelling. A woman slaps her son in the face (he falls to the floor crying) and yells at a woman. Two boys shove each other and argue in several scenes. Two boys play with toy guns and run around on a roof where one pretends to shoot the other in the back and they argue. A boy pretends to be dead and lies very still and a woman does the same. Two boys run ahead in a town and their nanny tries to see them in crowds of people; she seems worried and eventually catches up to them. A woman cries over her husband having an affair and leaving her.
► A woman goes into labor in the back of a car that is stuck in traffic in a tunnel and we see many pregnant women in labor outside and inside a hospital. A woman bumps into another woman causing her to drop a cup that breaks and spills the beverage on her and the floor. Two women run on a sidewalk and across an intersection where a car screeches to stop. Children play outside during a hail storm. Children cry and complain when vinegar is applied to their sunburned shoulders and backs.
► People with signs and banners march in a protest and we see police in riot gear as a woman says, "I hope they don't beat them again." Two boys argue over a toy car. A woman tells her children that their father is not coming home and the children cry; one asks if their father doesn't love them anymore. A husband and his wife argue in their room and the woman closes the door. Two boys argue about going to a movie. A woman yells at another woman to clean up a dog's mess. A boy tells a story about other boys throwing water balloons at cars and that one balloon hit a military vehicle; when a soldier in the vehicle became upset, he shot one of the boys in the head. A man talks about his childhood and that his mother died, he ended up in a gang, that he drank and huffed and that martial arts saved him from that life. A woman says that a dog ate a poisoned rat and died. A woman says, "They killed his son over a land dispute." A woman tells another woman that they seized her mother's land. A woman says to another woman, "Women are always alone." A boy talks about "when he was older" in a few scenes and that he died in a storm when he was a sea captain. A woman cries and says that she didn't want her child to be born (the child was stillborn).
► Several dogs' heads are shown mounted on plaques in a home and later we see a variety of larger stuffed animals in a living room area where guests are gathered at a party. A man on TV is shown pulling a car by a chain that he holds in his teeth. A few dogs rummage around crosses at the side of a road (it's not clear if they are in a cemetery or scenes of accidents). A man wears a monster costume and walks through a party causing children to run and scream.
► Piles of dog feces and puddles of urine are seen in a driveway in several scenes. A woman sweeps up piles of dog feces from a driveway and washes the ground. A man steps in dog feces and we hear a squish. A car drives over dog feces in a driveway a couple of times and we hear a squish. A pregnant woman's water breaks and we see fluid between her feet on the floor. We hear a toilet flush behind a closed door. People walk through mud and children run through puddles in a town.

Roma LANGUAGE 5

 - About 4 F-words, 5 scatological terms (1 mild), 2 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (stupid, fat, prankster, little devil, bastard, silly, Gringo, Gringa, cocky, you stink, fatty, idiot, you smell), exclamations (shut-up, calm down, settle down, yuck), 1 religious profanity (GD), 4 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh God, For God's Sake, God Forbid). | profanity glossary |

Roma SUBSTANCE USE

 - A man talks about drinking and huffing when he was young. People drink alcohol at a house party, two women drink a toast at a party, a woman seems drunk after running her car into a narrow driveway area, and a man appears to be drunk at a party and he stumbles. A man smokes a cigarette in a car, a man smokes in his house, people smoke in a movie theater and we see plumes of smoke rising, a doctor smoke sin a hospital, a man is shown with a cigarette in his mouth, many people are shown smoking while walking on sidewalks, and people drink and smoke cigarettes at a house party.

Roma DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Mexico in the 1970s, class distinctions, distribution of wealth, political protests, authoritarianism, adventure, infidelity, unwanted pregnancy.

Roma MESSAGE

 - Life is filled with turmoil and often someone who may seem insignificant emerges as the catalyst that keeps a family together.