Asteroid City | 2023 | PG-13 | – 6.4.3

Why is “Asteroid City” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “on appeal for brief graphic nudity, smoking and some suggestive material.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a brief scene of the reflection of a fully nude woman, a few kissing scenes between two men, and a teen boy and a teen girl, a few references to sex and marriage, several atomic bomb explosions, an alien visit, several risky behaviors undertaken by a teen boy, discussions of violent relationships, a man burning his hand on a griddle, a few car chases with gunfire exchanged, several scenes of people smoking and drinking liquor, and some moderate language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

Set in 1955: a photojournalist (Jason Schwartzman) takes his four young children to a desert area called Asteroid City for a stargazers’ competition, and they meet unusual characters while waiting for a special event. Also with Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Jake Ryan, Grace Edwards, Maya Hawke, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Liev Schreiber, Aristou Meehan, Ethan Josh Lee, Sophia Lillis, Bob Balaban, Fisher Stevens, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Ella Faris, Gracie Faris, Willan Faris, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon and Jeff Goldblum. Directed by Wes Anderson. [Running Time: 1:44]

Asteroid City SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A woman tells a man, “I do a nude scene. Wanna see it?” and she acts out stepping out of a shower with a towel, drops the towel, and we briefly see her reflection in a mirror; she is fully nude (we see her bare breasts, abdomen, pubic hair and legs) as the man watches and seems speechless. A painting on a wall shows a fully nude man with his bare back, buttocks and legs visible. A woman wears a towel wrapped around her and we see her bare shoulders, cleavage and bare legs to the upper thighs.
► A woman tells a man, “My daughter saw us,” and we see the woman’s bare feet and lower legs on a bed while the man stands at the foot of the bed and a teen girl watches through the window (sex is implied).
► A man removes his pants (we see him wearing boxer shorts and his bare legs to the knees are shown) and he and another man kiss as the scene ends. A teen girl and a teen boy kiss.
► A man touches a woman’s clothed buttock. A teen girl and a teen boy look at each other flirtatiously in a few scenes. A man and a woman dance together and seem smitten with each other.
► A man remarks about “Making out in the station wagon.” A character says that a man was described sexually as “an animal.” We hear that a woman left her husband for another man. A man talks about having gone skinny-dipping.

Asteroid City VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – There are explosions that shake the ground in a few scenes; we are told that they are atom bomb tests and we see mushroom clouds in the distance. Armed soldiers surround an area that has been declared quarantined and people in the area complain about how long they will be held prisoner there. A man is said to have been struck with shrapnel and we see a scar on the back of his head; we later see a photo of him at the time and he has blood on his shirt and holds a large piece of blood-covered metal in his hand. A man puts his hand on a hot griddle and we hear a sizzle; we later see him wearing a bandage. A man punches a window when it won’t open and a pane shatters (he does not appear injured).
► A man points a ray gun at a soldier that points a rifle at him. A man shoots a ray gun around an area where people are gathered causing some property damage. A few scenes show a car speeding along a desert road chased by police with sirens blaring and we hear gunfire as they pass. A man carries a gun in his pants waistband throughout the movie.
► A man installs a replacement part in a car, he starts the car and a part pops out and lands in a pan on the floor where it sputters and sparks; the tires blow and dark exhaust puffs out of the tailpipe. A tow truck pulling a car with four children inside pulls into a service station and the children get out of the car. A train travels through a desert and we see a man sleeping underneath one of the cars and another man seated on top of a car; we also see a nuclear warhead on an open platform. We see an impact crater in the desert and an asteroid later. Three young girls throw rocks at a rusted car chassis. A man fills his lighter using gasoline from a filling station pump. A telescope platform moves erratically and two teens standing on it bump their heads together. A woman is shown with a black eye in a few scenes and she says that it is stage makeup.
► A teen boy does several dangerous things after asking people if they would dare him to do so: he eats a hot pepper (he then guzzles water from a water dispenser), he jumps off a roof (he crashes into a garbage can but does not seem injured), he presses a button not knowing what it would do, and his father tells him, “I will break your neck,” and chases and tackles him behind a diner counter. A young boy smokes a cigarette and a woman yells at him to put it down. A glowing vessel lowers over a crowd of people watching the sky and a being steps onto the ground, picks up a meteor from the ground, it is lifted back into the vessel and it flies away. A man carries a woman’s ashes in a re-sealable container and his three young daughters recite incantations over it trying to bring her back to life.
► A ramp along a desert road appears to be under construction and a sign reads “closed indefinitely.” A woman says that she has a history with violent men including her father, her brother and her uncles. A woman says, “I’m not a good mother.” A teen boy asks his father, “Are you planning to abandon us?” A man says that he was whipped with a switch twice a week when he was a child. We hear about a car accident that kills a man. Three young girls introduce themselves as a vampire, a mummy and a fairy. A man tells another man that his accommodation will be a tent since his room accidentally caught on fire and we see it in charred rubble. A man introduces himself as a war photographer after he takes a photo of a woman in a diner without her permission. A woman rehearses a suicide scene and we see her lying motionless in a bathtub with a bottle of pills spilled on the floor. A woman instructs people not to look directly at solar ellipsis or the dots will be burned permanently onto their retinas. A teen girl says of her mother, “I’m sick of her face.” Three young girls yell at a man when he removes their mother’s ashes from a spot in the ground. A man tells his four children that their mother died and we hear that she died three weeks earlier and he was having trouble figuring out how to tell them. A man tells his children about their mother, “Let’s say she’s in heaven; that doesn’t exist for me, but you are Episcopalian.” A man says that his father died in war. A boy says that a bus struck something on a road and left it “flat as a pancake.” A boy says that a bus driver had to stop a few times because a girl onboard “couldn’t hold it.” A man says that a woman has an “Achilles heel phobia.”

Asteroid City LANGUAGE 3

 – 2 sexual references, 2 scatological terms, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (brainiac, bucket of nuts, witches in training, stunk, toxic, stubborn, red herring, shy, minor talent, devil, dirty dog, toad swindle, old man, strange, manipulative, snake, late bloomer, stuck up, spoiled, no good slob, abnormal), exclamations (gadzooks, hubbub, oh wow, gee whiz), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. oh God, I don’t believe in God anymore, children say prayers in a few scenes). | profanity glossary |

Asteroid City SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman rehearses a suicide scene and we see her lying motionless in a bathtub with a bottle of pills spilled on the floor. A man says that his wife drank herself to death, a man drinks from a glass of liquor, people drink martinis dispensed from a vending machine in a few scenes, a man drinks beer from a bottle in a few scenes, and a man asks a woman to bring him a cocktail and his pill. A young boy smokes a cigarette and a woman yells at him to put it down, a man smokes a cigarette, a woman smokes cigarettes in a few scenes, a man smokes a pipe in a few scenes, and a man smokes cigarettes in several scenes.

Asteroid City DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Death of a loved one, illness, aliens, stargazing, the meaning of life, infinity, alien contact, suicide.

Asteroid City MESSAGE

 – Trust your curiosity. The meaning of life is hard to find.