All Together Now | 2020 | PG | – 1.3.3

Why is “All Together Now” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic content, some language and brief suggestive comments.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a teen crush and brief handholding, an implied drunk driving car accident causing the death of two people, discussions of the death of parents and abusive relationships, a sick dog and the expensive surgery to cure it, homelessness, and some language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A musically gifted high school senior (Auli’i Cravalho), tries hard to keep secret the fact that she and her mother live and sleep on a school bus. When a personal tragedy complicates her life even more, her best friends (Rhenzy Feliz and Anthony Jacques Jr.) struggle to persuade her to accept help. Also with Justina Machado, Judy Reyes, Taylor Richardson, Gerald Isaac Waters, Fred Armisen and Carol Burnett. Directed by Brett Haley. [Running Time: 1:33]

All Together Now SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A teen boy and a teen girl hold hands for a few seconds in two scenes. A teen girl briefly hugs two teen boys goodbye and it looks like she may kiss one of them on the cheek, but this is unclear. A teen boy and a teen girl stay at a large cabin over a weekend (no sex occurs).
► A teen boy says that a teen girl has a crush on another teen boy (there is no response). An elderly woman asks a teen girl if she has hooked up yet, and the girl answers no. A teen girl is said to be “horny” for a new Sousaphone. A song sung in ESL classes includes the lyrics, “I’d kissed a soldier.” A teen girl dances a romantic tango in a show, using a cloth dummy as a partner. Women shake their hips as they dance on a stage.
► A teen girl is shown wearing a long towel for a few seconds and we see her from the waist up (her bare shoulders and arms are shown; there’s no cleavage).

All Together Now VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – Two police officers call a teen girl out of class and tell her that her mother was killed in a car accident and the girl suggests that her mother was riding with a boyfriend and both were drunk (please see the Substance Use category for more details); the girl goes into a school washroom, sits on a toilet and cries.
► A teen boy berates a teen girl for rejecting help from others and they stop speaking for weeks. We hear that a school bus driver’s boss learned that she was living in her bus with her teen daughter and fired her; when she decides to return to living with an abusive man, the daughter says she does not feel safe there and sleeps on a park bench with her small dog and in the morning her backpack and duffle bag containing all her possessions are gone. When a teen girl moves in with family friends, she is very sad and quiet for weeks.
► A teen girl says that her father died of “A heart thing,” and her mother became poor, leading to her mom and the girl being evicted; they moved in with a man who would hit the mother after drinking heavily (please see the Substance Use category for more details), and then the mother and daughter started sleeping in an empty school bus parked at night on the school district bus lot. We hear that a woman is a bus driver and her teen daughter works three jobs: in a donut shop early in the morning and at night, in a retirement home, and teaching an ESL class. A woman and her teen daughter argue several times, using loud voices and sometimes crying. A woman shouts at another woman and the woman’s daughter and storms out. A woman brings her teen daughter a slice of cheesecake a man bought and the teen yells at the woman for never giving her dinner. Several teens give another teen a hard time for quitting school and missing a college music audition, and she says that she is too tired to deal with them.
► An aging Chihuahua whimpers off-screen in the middle of the night and a teen girl awakens and finds it lying on the floor; the scene cuts to a veterinary office where the vet tells the girl a tumor on the dog’s spleen must be removed. A teen girl drops out of school to earn enough money for a surgery for her dog. A teen boy takes a teen girl to a variety show at school and she cries. We see a dog wearing a head cone, indicating that it had surgery.
► A teen girl cowers in a school bus seat as we hear slaps and a male voice grunting off-screen (we never learn who was fighting). On a TV screen, we see a man throw another man through a wooden house wall and out into the dirt yard and the two men scuffle (there are no injuries).

All Together Now LANGUAGE 3

 – 1 scatological pun, 1 anatomical term, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (insufferable, wussy), exclamations (scram, wow, whoo, whoo-hoo), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Oh God, My God, For God’s Sakes, and a song sung in ESL classes includes the lyrics, “They all went to heaven). | profanity glossary |

All Together Now SUBSTANCE USE

 – We hear that a dog is taking painkillers and we see a teen girl feed the dog one pill. A woman comments about drinking in two different scenes (“I had one glass of wine,” and “I had two drinks”), a teen girl says she and her mom moved in with a man and the adults left her and went drinking the first night and that the drinking continued often, a teen girl says that her mother was sober for five months but started drinking again (we do not witness any drinking or alcohol), a teen girl says about her mom and an abusive boyfriend after they both died in a single-vehicle accident that they both were drunk, and a song sung in ESL classes includes the lyrics, “The goose drank wine,” and, “A monkey chewed tobacco.”

All Together Now DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Alcoholism, domestic violence, suffering, loss, death of parents, survivor’s guilt, poverty, homelessness, class differences, pretending everything is OK, taking care of sick aging pets, people who are different, helping others, accepting help, community, teamwork, family, friendship, love, importance of music.

All Together Now MESSAGE

 – You should let others help you, even if you prefer to help others; help is a gift to both you and the helpers.