Blow the Man Down | 2019 | R | – 5.5.6

Why is “Blow the Man Down” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language, some violence, sexual material and brief drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes stylized pictures of fully nude women, some sexual sounds in a B&B, implications of and discussions of prostitution, and several cleavage revealing outfits; a couple of murders with some blood shown and one ending with a dismembered body (not shown), a dead body discovered and retrieved from the sea, a funeral with the body in an open casket, and several arguments and threats; and nearly 20 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

---

Two sisters (Sophie Lowe and Morgan Saylor) in a small Maine fishing village try to cover a gruesome death by hiding the body and any evidence of murder, but do not realize that their bucolic hometown and its apparently upright citizens also hide dark secrets. Also with Meredith Holzman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, June Squibb, Marceline Hugot, Annette O’Toole, Linda Shary, Margo Martindale, Owen Burke and Skipp Sudduth. Directed by Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy. [Running Time: 1:31]

Blow the Man Down SEX/NUDITY 5

 – A stylized picture of a fully nude woman is seen in the background of a scene and we see bare her breasts, abdomen, and a genital outline (no hair). A stylized picture of a nude woman hangs in the background of a scene and we see bare breasts and abdomen and her genitals and legs are partially covered by a sheer drape. A woman (she’s implied to be a prostitute) adjusts her bra and breasts (we see cleavage) when waiting at the door of a house and she asks for a man; a woman inside opens the door instead. A woman’s top reveals cleavage. A woman wears a skirt that reveals her bare legs to the upper thighs in a few scenes and she wears opaque tights in a few scenes. A woman wears a short top that reveals her bare abdomen. Two women wear cleavage-revealing tops in a couple of scenes.
► A man touches a woman’s leg while she is driving and pulls the hem of her skirt up slightly (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man and a woman hug. Men and women dance in a bar and one man has his hands resting on a woman’s clothed buttocks. We hear rhythmic thumping coming from the ceiling and sexual moaning in a B&B that we understand is actually a brothel. A woman takes a man into a room and sits on his lap flirtatiously while another man asks a second woman questions.
► There are several discussions about a woman running a brothel in a town where fishermen hire the women; several women talk about the townspeople being fearful of their daughters being taken advantage of without the services of the brothel. A woman makes a remark about a man being “a flirt.” A woman makes a remark that her elderly uncle “Got a new girlfriend” one night when he went back to his retirement home drunk.

Blow the Man Down VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A man opens the trunk of his car and a woman sees blood, hair and a woman’s handbag inside and she becomes nervous and the man grabs her, she pushes him away, she runs and hides among fishing traps, the man follows her and she stabs him in the throat with a harpoon; he falls to the floor gasping (we see some blood) and he grabs the woman’s leg and she slams a brick down on him (we do not see this). A car swerves on a road and stops, a woman gets out of the passenger side and runs through snow while yelling at the driver that chases her and tackles her; they tussle and argue briefly (we see the woman’s dead body when it is discovered after being dumped in the ocean). A woman smothers another woman with a pillow while she is sleeping; she struggles briefly before dying. A woman’s body is shown in an open casket at a funeral.
► A woman slaps another woman in the face and yells at her. A woman squeezes a woman’s face while speaking to her angrily. A woman threatens two other women demanding that they return something to her. Three women confront another woman and threaten to put her out of business. A woman yells at two women when they won’t accept money from her and she tries to convince them to work for her.
► Two women drag a dead body into a cabin (we see a bloody wound on the face and blood on the hands of the corpse), they lift it into a large cooler and struggle to close the lid; they determine the body is too big and lay it on a tarp where one of the women cuts off its limbs with a fishing knife (it is all off-screen) and we see them carrying the cooler taped up and with an anchor attached to it to a cliff where they dump it into the ocean. Two men in a small boat retrieve a body from rocks in an inlet and we see the body when they lay it on a dock (we see blue-tinged skin on the face). A woman covered with blood stands over another woman’s bed as she sleeps, and the other woman wakes up in a start; the first woman showers and we see blood streaming along the floor of the tub. A police officer finds a gun in the glove compartment of a car and conjectures that it will match the caliber of the gunshot wound in a recently discovered body.
► A woman drives a car while drunk and swerves on the road and when a man in the passenger seat touches her, she loses control and slams into a large structure that breaks and falls on the car (there are no injuries).
► Three women discuss that a body was found with a gunshot wound and track marks on an arm. Two women argue and one leaves angrily (she seems drunk). Three women question another woman about a woman’s potential involvement in a murder and she becomes angry and storms out. A woman tells another woman that people are saying bad things about her and that they suspect that she hurt or killed another woman. A police officer asks two women about a phone call to the precinct coming from their home one night. We hear that two women are losing their house after their mother dies, and one of them will have to drop out of college.
► Men on fishing boats process fish after being caught: we see severed heads and headless fish with some blood on them and a hook is pushed through the eye of a fish in close-up. A woman cuts the head off a fish and cleans it before placing filets in a pan. A woman finds a fishing knife with blood on it. A fishermen’s song contains the repeated phrase “Blood red roses.” A woman washes out a large cooler and we see blood staining the snow under it.

Blow the Man Down LANGUAGE 6

 – About 19 F-words and its derivatives, 3 sexual references (one phrase is painted on a boat), 22 scatological terms, 9 anatomical terms, 13 mild obscenities, name-calling (cheap, nun, gross, criminal, dump, pathetic, full vegetable, weird, good Catholic boy, creeps, dirt bags, catty [mild obscenity deleted], bastard, whore house, not so nice, fool, monster, stupid, spoiled rotten, sick man, selfish, ungrateful junkie, cupcake), exclamations (freaking, grow up, freaking out, boys will be boys), 6 religious profanities (GD), 4 religious exclamations (e.g. God Rest Her Soul, Lord Help Us, Hail Mary, a man says a prayer before a meal). | profanity glossary |

Blow the Man Down SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man snorts cocaine in a car. Two women drink from a flask, several women drink a toast with whiskey, people drink beer and wine in a bar, a woman drinks whiskey in a bar and when she orders more the barperson tells her she’s had enough, a woman makes a cup of tea and adds whiskey, two women are shown with beer bottles as they sit in a snow-covered cemetery, a man holds a beer bottle in a bar, and a woman drinks whiskey at an after funeral gathering and appears drunk. A man smokes from a vape and blows a large plume of smoke, and a man and a woman smoke outside a bar.

Blow the Man Down DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Fishing villages, family business, secrets, death of a parent, sacrifice, morality, trust, prostitution, secrets, greed.

Blow the Man Down MESSAGE

 – Appearances can be deceiving and secrets never stay hidden in tightknit communities.