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The Family Fang | 2016 | R | - 3.5.5

The members of an eccentric, dysfunctional family of performance artists are estranged from each other, until reunited after an accident and the parents (Chrstopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett) try to convince the children (Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman) to participate in another performance. Also with Kathryn Hahn, Marin Ireland, Harris Yulin, Eugenia Kuzmina, Jason Butler Harner and Linda Emond. Directed by Jason Bateman. [1:45]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man is shown wearing briefs as he comes down the stairs in a woman's home (we see his bare chest and abdomen, as well as a bulge at the crotch) and sex is implied. A topless woman walks through a movie set and we see her bare back to the waistband of her shorts (we do not see her breasts). We see a photograph on a tabloid cover of a topless woman with her nipples blocked out (we see cleavage, bare lower breasts and abdomen). A woman wears a low-cut dress and a low-cut top that reveal cleavage.
 A husband and a wife wearing costumes enter a room with their adult children and it is implied that they were having sex in another room. A pre-teen boy kisses his teenage sister on stage while performing "Romeo and Juliet" in front of a large audience, which seems taken aback by the act.
 A young boy dressed as a girl wins a beauty pageant and pulls off a wig to celebrate; the MC tries to pull the sash off the young boy and his mother knocks the man down. A woman protests having to perform a movie scene topless and the director yells at her. People talk about a woman starring in a tampon commercial.

VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A man with a loaded crossbow aims and shoots at a man on a sidewalk below him; he fires and we see the man struck in the shoulder and he falls to the ground (no blood is seen and the man is fine later). A young boy gives a note to a bank teller demanding lollipops, the teller responds by giving the boy a lollipop and the boy points a handgun at her; a security guard runs toward the boy, other people in the bank run and scream as the boy shoots at the guard, hitting a woman who lies still on the ground as a pre-teen girl cries over her and we see a pool of blood on the floor (it was a performance piece and no one was actually harmed); the young boy takes a finger-full of the blood on the floor and licks it, then says, "It tastes like maple syrup."
 Several men load potato guns and fire them into a corn field and at an abandoned car; after having drunk several beers each, one man puts a beer can on his head and another man shoots the potato gun at the man smashing the can and spraying beer on the man's head, another man tries the same thing and hits the man in the head (we see him with blood on the side of his face and hear that he has a perforated eardrum). We see a video of a man cutting his own arm and blood pours from the wound. A man points a gun at another man.
 We see a woman buried in sand as two children run to the lifeguard station to ask for help; a man later says, "Your mother nearly smothered out there."
 A young boy dressed as a girl wins a beauty pageant and pulls off a wig to celebrate; the MC tries to pull the sash off the young boy and his mother knocks the man down. A man carrying an infant walks across a roller rink while flairs spray sparks out of a backpack on his back (skaters look panicked). A family poses for a family portrait and when they smile we see fangs and blood pours from their mouths (the photographer looks shocked and other clients leave the area in fright). A young girl and a young boy sing "Kill all parents" in a park and man and a woman yell at them accusing them of being horrible; other people argue with the first man and woman and they scuffle until a camera is thrown on the ground and it breaks. We see a young girl sitting on a mall Santa Claus' lap and screaming and crying as other people watch and seem distressed.
 A woman startles and drops a glass that breaks in a bar. A man with a bandage on his head and a black eye pushes a woman with a bandage on her head and her arm in a sling in a wheelchair through an airport (they are not actually injured). A man slams a glass onto the ground and it shatters startling a woman sitting next to him.
 Police tell a man and a woman that their parents might have been abducted and are probably dead (we see crime scene photos with blood inside the car). A man talks about another mean being shot in the arm. We hear a voiceover of a man saying, "Imagine you're dead..." A young boy asks, "Can I taste the blood?" and his mother replies, "No because I don't want to stain my shirt." A woman protests having to perform a movie scene topless and the director yells at her. A man tells a story about his fear of what would happen if his parents died. A woman talks about her cousin getting trapped in a well. A woman describes two teenage boys as being "obsessed with the apocalypse."

LANGUAGE 5 - 5 F-words, 10 scatological terms, 12 anatomical terms, 18 mild obscenities, name-calling (clowns, loopy, garbage, fool, crazy, hack, fraud, fat, stupid), exclamations (shove it), 3 religious profanities (GD), 15 religious exclamations (e.g. God No, Oh God , Oh My God, For God's Sake, Jesus Christ, Jesus, God, Thank God, Holy [scatological term deleted]).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man takes a prescription pill, and a man says that he is on Percocet after an accident. A man drinks a beer at a bar and a woman drinks a cocktail in a glass, people drink wine with a meal, a man says that he can smell alcohol on a woman, and a woman pours herself a glass of alcohol but does not drink it.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Performance art, family, estranged families, alcoholism, drug abuse, anarchy, being a spectacle, impulse control, abduction, the human condition, avant garde art, truth, siblings, redemption, betrayal.

MESSAGE - We cannot fix others, only ourselves.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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