Nutcrackers | 2024 | TV-14 | – 3.3.4

Why is “Nutcrackers” rated TV-14? The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board rating indicates that “this program contains some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a kiss between an adolescent boy and girl, several discussions with young children about sex and reproduction, mild slapstick injuries, mimed violence during a ballet performance, discussions of parental death, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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After the death of his sister and brother-in-law, a career-driven man (Ben Stiller) must travel to rural Ohio to care for his four orphaned nephews (Homer, Ulysses, Atlas and Arlo Janson) and attempt to find them a new home. Also with Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson and Tim Heidecker. Directed by David Gordon Green. [Running Time: 1:44]

Nutcrackers SEX/NUDITY 3

 – During a homeschooling lesson, several boys urge their uncle to teach them about sex and we briefly see anatomical diagrams of reproductive parts and talk about reproductive organs. A man asks what boys already know about sex and one boy says, “the bee sticks his stinger in the bird’s [anatomical term deleted]”; the boys describe seeing farm animals (two pigs) have sex, using sexual terms. A boy says that sex is when “Mom and Dad go in a room, lock the door, and make funny noises”; he says that is how babies are made; a man says, “Only if you’re not careful.” A man tells a group of boys that sex is what people do when they like each other; a man tells a group of boys how babies are made and describes fertilization and the boys react in disgust.
► A boy tells a girl that he likes that he really misses dancing with her. A girl asks a boy if he has ever kissed a girl and he says maybe, she asks if he has ever kissed a girl upside down, and he says no. A boy says he thinks he’s going to marry a girl. A girl points out a boy, asks another girl if he’s the one sending her love letters, and then says, “He’s weird but cute.” A boy asks his uncle if a girl can tell if “You’ve never kissed before,” and the boy is disappointed when the man says maybe; the man tells him, “Just try not to let her teeth knock into your teeth.” As a woman drives away, a boy says to his uncle, “Bet you want to take your clothes off with her.” A man asks a boy if he is writing a love letter and then if he is writing to a crush or a girlfriend and the boy does not answer. A man argues on the phone with a female coworker and asks if their history means nothing; she says, “Not at the workplace” and that she told him never to bring that up, implying something sexual occurred. A man reminds a woman that they know each other and mentions going to a boathouse after a wedding. A man says he asked his nephew’s crush to help them with a ballet, and that she said she wants to marry the nephew. A boy asks his uncle if he has a girlfriend; he says he did a long time ago and she wanted to get married, but he didn’t, and they broke up. A boy answers a man’s phone and announces that a woman is calling; he and his brothers make “ooo” sounds and one boy mimes kissing someone.
► A girl kisses a boy. A woman flirts with a man who is clearly uninterested in a few scenes; she flirtatiously applies lipstick while looking at the man sitting next to her and he looks irritated. A woman tells a man that he can stay on a couch in her bedroom anytime and repeatedly touches his arm.
► A young boy takes a bath and his brother helps him bathe (we see the boy’s bare torso). A boy walks around the house without a shirt on (we see his bare chest and back); another boy has holes in his shirt that reveal parts of his bare chest.

Nutcrackers VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – Several boys and their uncle stop at a small memorial for their dead parents on a sidewalk; they describe the car accident that killed their parents and say that the car was turned upside down. We see two urns and a photo of a man and woman embracing next to it (it is implied they are the deceased parents of several young boys).
► A boy throws a baseball at a man as he’s working and it hits him in the head causing him to shout in pain; we later see a bruise forming. A man falls down fire escape stairs; he makes pained sounds and winces when he gets up and he is later seen limping. A young boy handles an axe and chops wood, young boys stand on the roof while running around and playing on it (a man tells them to be careful and comments on it not being safe), a boy uses power tools while trying to repair a motorbike, two young boys drive a sports car around their yard revving the engine while two other boys cheer and the boy driving says that he wants to jump a ramp in the car that is clearly too small and a man stops him.
► Several children break into a carnival after closing (sneaking past a guard, and breaking locks); a carnival ride short circuits (we see bursts of sparks and explosions) while kids are riding (no injuries occur) and a security guard shouts at them and chases them away. A brick is thrown through a window, shattering it and narrowly missing two people standing inside; a woman gasps. As several boys start to cross a street, a large truck barrels past and they leap back to the sidewalk. During the closing credits, a man drives an ATV with a boy sitting on the back and drives up a ramp, attempting a jump; we later hear a voiceover that suggests they crashed and the man landed on his face.
► Several boys put a cinder block on the gas pedal of a golf cart; it drives out of control, then crashes into a manger display, destroying it, and then falls into a swimming pool; a man holds up the baby Jesus figurine and says, “It’s okay, I saved him.” A sheriff yells at a man that people need to move their cars outside a theater; the man shoves him into a room and closes the door. A man kicks over a mailbox in anger and stomps on it.
► Talking about a play they are going to perform, a boy says they need a sword so a rampaging nutcracker can murder their uncle, stabbing him in the heart. During a ballet performance, two boys mime fighting and stabbing each other with swords; another boy mimes stabbing a man and the man groans, falls down and pretends to be dead.
► A man says, “Okay chickens, who wants to die?” before chasing chickens and catching one; a boy tells him, “We’ll take it from here,” as he brandishes an axe and another boy says the chicken’s name is Elizabeth, which makes the man look uncomfortable and the scene cuts to the group eating cooked chicken. Several boys urge a man to kill a chicken for them to eat; the boys describe the woman who previously cared for them killing a chicken and mime her cutting its head off, saying it “ran around like crazy”; they tell him to cut its head off, break its neck, “pull its guts out” and cut its legs off. A young boy plays with two kitchen knives, swinging them around and pointing the blade at himself as he talks.
► Boys discuss running away and hopping a train rather than going to an orphanage; a man says, “At least people don’t get their legs torn off in orphanages” and he makes references to “hobos and tramps” who would have “all sorts of ideas of what to do with little boys,” and says they’ll end up “stuffed in an oil drum”; one boy looks scared and says he doesn’t want to die. A boy describes a group home as being terrible, saying another boy who lived there had to live in a cardboard box, eat human tongue, and that he got hepatitis. Two boys tell their uncle they want a bedtime story with “action and blood”; he tells them the story of the movie “Rambo” and describes sheriffs trying to torture Rambo, Rambo kicking one of them “in the [anatomical term deleted],” head-butting another, and throwing a third out a window; one boy says later that he had a bad dream about Rambo.
► A man opens a toilet seat and finds a hissing snake in the toilet; he screams and slams the lid shut. A man falls in an icy pond and screams; several boys watch and laugh. Several boys hassle a man wearing a costume at a Christmas party, stealing his mask and trying to take his golf cart; he begs them to stop and says, “My boss is going to kill me.” Several boys sneak out of the house late at night and start a bonfire in their yard; they then throw their parents’ ashes in the fire.
► A man exits his car and steps in dog feces; we see him step in it and hear a squish (he reacts in disgust). As a man talks to his nephews, we hear audible flatulence and the man reacts in disgust; the boy says there was a “little piece of [scatological term deleted],” and another boy pretends to vomit (he does not). A boy tells his uncle that he needs “to go [scatological term deleted],” and “it’s a big one.” We hear flatulence while a boy and girl kiss; the girl gets embarrassed and says she [scatological term deleted] and the boy asks if they can kiss again without flatulence and she leaves. In several scenes, boys make retching sounds and mime vomiting with no vomit produced.

Nutcrackers LANGUAGE 4

 – About 15 scatological terms, 22 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (nuts, delinquents, dummy, dog face, gremlins, weird, freaks, stupid), 1 religious exclamation (Jesus). | profanity glossary |

Nutcrackers SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man tries to open a locked liquor cabinet, several people drink beer and liquor in a bar, and a man takes a bottle of liquor to bed with him and the next morning he acts like he is hungover.

Nutcrackers DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Grief and loss, foster homes, orphanages, adoption, work-life balance, religious cults (brief reference to children’s family living on a shared ranch with a cult leader, which they left), family.

Nutcrackers MESSAGE

 – In the darkest times, you can still find reasons to dance, so long as you have people you love.