Dreamland | 2020 | R | – 6.6.5

Why is “Dreamland” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some violence, language and sexuality/nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a sex scene that includes nudity, a few kissing scenes, partial nudity, several gunfire exchanges with police during and after a bank robbery leading to bloody wounds and the death of a child and others, removal of a bullet from a bloody gunshot wound, several scenes of giant dust storms blowing across fields, and at least 5 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A teen boy (Finn Cole) living with his family on a dust bowl ranch during the Great Depression, distracts himself by reading detective comics and imagining escaping his dreary life. The promise of a bounty inspires him to search for a bank robber (Margot Robbie) on the run, but his life takes an unexpected turn when he finds her wounded and hiding in his barn. Also with Travis Fimmel, Garrett Hedlund, Kerry Condon and Darby Camp. Directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte. [Running Time: 1:38]

Dreamland SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A woman in a shower invites a teen boy to join her, they talk and he removes his clothes (we see his bare side, partial chest and shoulder); she moves toward him (we see her bare breast, abdomen and partial buttock), tells him to lie down in the tub and she sits on top of him asking, “Have you ever done this before,” and she thrusts briefly and the scene ends (sex is implied).
► A teen boy and a woman undress to swim in a lake; we see bare shoulders, his abdomen and their backs later when they run out of the water wearing only underwear. A woman lifts her skirt to reveal a bullet wound and we see her legs to the upper thigh with stockings covering the lower part of her legs. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. A woman wears swimwear that reveals partial bare side and legs to the hips. A teen boy wears swim trunks that reveal his bare chest and abdomen and legs to the upper thighs. A teen boy digs a hole in the ground and buries his bloodstained shirt and pants (we see his bare chest, abdomen, back and legs when he enters the house wearing only boxers and his young sister asks, “Why are you naked?” A teen boy watches a woman undress (we see her unbuttoning her dress without visible nudity) in a barn through a knothole and his young sister startles him.
► A woman and teen boy kiss. A woman rests back in a teen boy’s arm and they hold hands. Men and women dance at a barn dance.
► A teen boy imagines a character in a story being “In bed with a different girl every night.” A woman tells a teen boy, “You’re in love with me” and “I don’t love you back.”

Dreamland VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – After a bank robbery police officers open fire on two robbers as they leave the bank surrounded by civilians and we see an officer shot dead and a young girl lying dead on the road with blood on her face (we see this scene a few times from different perspectives); a woman is also shot in the leg (we see blood on her dress) and she speeds away in a car. A woman and teen boy rob a bank, they take a gun from an officer inside the bank and force the customers to the floor; one man stands up and is shot (blood sprays). A flashback shows a man shooting a police officer outside a bank (we see blood spray). A man in a car is shot by a chasing police car and the man shoots the officer in the head (blood sprays and the car swerves). A woman is shot in the back as she runs away and she falls dead (we see blood on her clothing and pooled under her). A man is shot in the leg and falls to his knees (blood sprays).
► A woman complains of having a “hole in my leg,” and lifts her skirt to reveal a bloody bullet wound on her upper thigh; a teen boy removes the bullet with tweezers (we see the tweezers moving around in the bullet hole) and pours alcohol on the wound (the woman winces).
► A woman shoots a gun in the air as a teen boy walks away from her; he is startled and stops walking. A teen boy finds blood-soaked papers on the floor of a barn and a woman with a gun stands up from behind a tractor; the woman throws the gun to the teen and he picks it up. A young girl enters a barn and follows a trail of blood-soaked papers on the floor as a woman holding a sickle hides behind a tractor; the girl is startled by a noise and runs out. A police car pulls a truck over and a woman with a gun hides under the truck as the officer questions the teen driver; the officer leaves and no one is harmed.
► A man slams his teen stepson against a wall and threatens him, throws him on a bed and we hear slapping (we do not see the boy being struck). A woman slaps a teen boy in the face. After their car breaks down, a man and a woman run through a field until the man collapses bleeding from a gunshot wound and the woman leaves him.
► A car speeds on a road chased by a police car. A man yells and startles a teen boy and a woman swimming in a lake; they run away. A teen boy steals keys from a man’s pocket and uses them to steal evidence from a police locker; the boy is caught by an officer and he makes an excuse and leaves the building. A man puts on a dust mast and goggles and walks out into a dust storm that blows so hard that he cannot make it across the property and turns around to go back to his house.
► A man says that a woman, “Sent a 9-year-old girl to Heaven along with 5 other souls” during a bank robbery and shootout with police. A husband yells at his wife and storms out of the house (we hear that he never returned). A man yells at another man and fires him. A man throws papers at another man that presumably had come to collect on a debt to the bank. A man reprimands his teenage son for not listening to his mother. A woman talks about having lost her family and farm in Missouri. A woman confesses to robbing a bank. A man talks about searching for a fugitive woman. A voiceover talks about a “cursed land” and homesteaders suffering from soil that won’t grow crops. A voiceover talks about a man’s drinking getting worse and that he eventually left his family when a boy was 5-years-old. A voiceover says, “The land turned on us; 14 storms hit Bismarck in a year.” We hear that the banks came to collect on debts and people ended up with nowhere to live. A teen boy asks anther teen boy, “You think we’ll find her dead?” when they look for a fugitive. A young girl tells her older brother, “You’re in trouble.” A teen boy tells his young sister that there are two dead dogs in a barn to keep her from looking inside. A woman says, “The worst part of dying is being forgotten.”
► A man skins a rabbit and we hear the tearing of flesh as we see bloody tissue uncovered; the man cuts the animal’s head off and we see it separate and he pulls out intestines (we see blood on his hands). A teen boy vomits on the ground and we see goo. A teen boy digs a hole in the ground and buries his bloodstained shirt and pants. Several scenes show huge dust storms blowing across land and people wear dust masks and eye coverings when they move around; one scene shows a tree branch breaking through a window in a teen boy’s room. A young girl hides in the back of her father’s car under a blanket when he and two men go to find her brother. Two teen boys steal from a store; one takes a comic book and another takes an apple. Two teen boys scuffle and playfight. A teen boy sneaks out his bedroom window at night and walks to a barn in the distance.

Dreamland LANGUAGE 5

 – About 5 F-words, 10 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, name-calling (paranoid, crazy preachers, stupid, killer, kid, dumb, arrogant, outlaw, hoopla, dummy, whore, fishy, dingbat, ugly, creeping little toad), exclamations (bingo), 3 religious profanities (GD), 13 religious exclamations (e.g. Eye Of God, God’s Grace, Oh Jesus, God, Salvation, Amen To That, Christ, God And Coincidence, God Forsaken, Thank God, The Hand Of God, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Dreamland SUBSTANCE USE

 – A voiceover talks about a man’s drinking getting worse, a man carries a bottle of liquor and drinks from it, and a woman talks about a man drinking himself to death. A man and a teen boy smoke cigarettes outside a building.

Dreamland DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Homesteaders, dust bow, the Great Depression, promise, bankruptcy, repossession, adventure, daydreaming, drought, bank robbing, love, jealousy, abandonment.

Dreamland MESSAGE

 – Be careful what you wish for.