Half Brothers | 2020 | PG-13 | – 2.4.5

Why is “Half Brothers” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some violence and strong language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kisses, discussions of conceiving a child out of wedlock, infidelity and parenting, a beating that ends in bloody facial wounds and an implied beating that also leaves bloody facial wounds, several threats of violence including people being shot at, bullying, many arguments with a couple ending in a scuffle, a threat against a goat, and at least 1 F-word and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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After a successful aviation engineer (Luis Gerardo Méndez) in Mexico reconnects with his estranged father (Juan Pablo Espinosa), he also discovers that he has a brother (Connor Del Rio). Together, the half-brothers embark on an adventure that will answer questions they have about their relationship with their father. Also with José Zúñiga, Vincent Spano, Bianca Marroquin and Ashley Poole. Directed by Luke Greenfield. Many lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish with English subtitles. [Running Time: 1:36]

Half Brothers SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A woman wearing a short slip that reveals her bare legs to the upper thighs and cleavage sleeps on a bed as a man dresses and leaves (sex is implied). A man and woman kiss and hug in a couple of scenes. A husband and his wife hug and kiss. A man hugs a nun thinking that she is his sister (she is not).
► A woman in a hospital is shown with an infant in a nearby incubator and when a man enters the room, it is understood that he is the father (he is married to another woman). A man talks about having a sister who’s “married to Jesus.”
► Women wear low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage in several scenes. A man takes off his clothes complaining of being hot after inhaling alcohol gas and we see his bare chest and abdomen and back as he collapses to the floor unconscious.

Half Brothers VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A man is slammed into a mirror and beaten by two other men and they steal his money (we see bloody wounds on his head and face). A man wakes up in a car hearing gunshots, and he sees another man carrying a small goat and running toward the car as several other men chase and shoot at him; the two men and the goat speed away in the car unharmed. A man driving a car argues with another man, pulls over and drags the other man out of the car and they scuffle briefly over a goat that the other man has brought into the car. A man bets several other men in a bar that he can make a shot in a game of pool; when he does not make the shot the men take him outside to beat him up and they throw beer bottles at him and another man as they run away. Several men tease another man and call him names; one man throws something at him as he walks away. Two men fight and argue and one punches the other in the face (he has a bloody nose). Several men return to a cabin where another man is locked in the bathroom (we see him later with a bloody nose and bruises on his face after an apparent beating that we do not see).
► A man locks another man in a bathroom in a cabin and leaves him there. A man walks on a highway toward the Mexican border and he is stopped by border patrol; he is locked in a cell and we hear that he was kept in prison for a long time, where he became very sick and we see him being dumped on the side of a road alone later, where he was discovered and cared for in a nearby convent. We see a box van filled with people (including children) driving across the desert in intense heat. Border patrol pulls a man over in a car and he has not identification, so he is taken to jail.
► A man gets a call that his father is very ill and that he should go to see him before he dies; the man says, “He’s not my father.” A boy cries and yells when his father calls to say that he is not coming back to Mexico. A man in a hospital bed tells his adult son, “I know you hate me,” and the son storms out; the man dies soon after. A man in a hospital bed is shown with oxygen and monitors. A man with bloody wounds on his head and face enters a shop and pleads with the owner for help. A man takes off his clothes complaining of being hot after inhaling alcohol gas and we see his bare chest and abdomen and back as he collapses to the floor unconscious. We see a goat tied to a table while men talk about eating it. Two men pump a gas into a cabin and several men collapse from the fumes.
► Two men argue throughout the movie. A man in a line in a coffee shop asks another man to loan him money and they argue. A man in a coffee shop buys a display of donuts and tells the barista to throw them all in the garbage. A man yells at an airport employee and she tells him to change his tone and apologize. We hear news reports about the Mexican currency crashing and see businesses shut down and the economy collapses causing men to leave their families and migrate to the United States to find work. A woman tells her fiancé, “No one likes you.” A woman talks about her young son being bullied in school. A man does an Internet search about, “How do I make friends.” A man tells a young boy that if he wants people at school to stop teasing and bullying him he should “Be less weird.” A man says of North Americans, “You’re all fat,” and “You speak louder instead of learning another language.” A man talks about Mexico being dangerous and that he is safe in America. A man identifies himself as a “Brand Ambassador.” A man says of another man, “He had a stroke when he was a kid.” A man talks about American factories looking for “cheap foreign labor” to exploit and work in dangerous conditions; we see men with their faces smeared with char and sleeping in bunks in what resembles cages. A man says, “Don’t give up on me,” and “Don’t ditch me.” A man laughs at another man and tells him, “You are gonna be the worst father.” A man puts a sock puppet on his hand and uses it to “externalize feelings” as another man yells at him. A man yells, “He forgot about me.” A man tells another man, “You mean nothing to me.” A man says of a goat, “I’m gonna kill that thing.” A man says that he dropped out of college and “messed up with all those jobs.” A man describes his father taking him to a “place” where he told doctors “there must be something wrong with him.” A man says, “I’ve not been a good man.” A man tells his adult sons, “I failed you.”
► A boy flies an R/C plane through a small town’s streets causing people to dodge and fall and drop items on the ground; the plane eventually crashes into a house and we hear a man inside yell. A boy squirts green goo on a man and a woman and they yell. A boy dangles by his knees upside down from a soccer goal.
► A boy wears a full head mask with a hatchet and stage blood on the head. A boy wears a Hannibal Lecter mask. A man talks about having containers of ethanol in the trunk of his car. A boy carries a toy chainsaw with stage blood splattered on it through his house and his mother takes it away from him. A man eats from a box of donuts and we see crumbs and icing on his beard. A man spits and we see saliva splatter on another man.

Half Brothers LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 1 F-word, 12 scatological terms, 11 anatomical terms, 12 mild obscenities, name-calling (entitled, fat, loser, weird, dangerous, dude, Amigo, monster, stupid, bully, lazy American, dumb goat, fiery, stupid man, freak show, freak, nutcase, clinically insane, loco, son of a gun, idiot, unique, naughty boy), exclamations (excuse me, hey, what’s your problem, calm down, shut-up, duh, hold on, are you freaking kidding me, not my jam, whatever, oh my gosh, focus, cut to the chase, what, what’s your deal, oh great, shut your mouth, what is wrong with you), 3 religious profanities (GD), 15 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Jesus, Oh God, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Half Brothers SUBSTANCE USE

 – Two men inhale gas from a distillation of moonshine into ethanol and become intoxicated, and several men are exposed to a gas that causes them to fall unconscious. A man drinks from a bottle of beer and hands it to his young son, people in a bar drink beers, a man and a woman drink in a bar, a man drinks a shot of liquor in a bar, two men find a moonshine still in a cabin, a man drinks a beer, several men in a cabin drink beers, and a man holds a beer as he sits on the back of a pickup truck.

Half Brothers DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Success, symbols of success, excess, the American Dream, parenting, risk, needing answers, abandonment, being a good father, bullying, Mexico/US relations, riddles, puzzles, infidelity, guilt, estranged families, misconceptions.

Half Brothers MESSAGE

 – Being different is not a bad thing. Forgiveness is the path to moving forward and it’s always good to look at things from a different perspective.