Poms | 2019 | PG-13 | – 3.3.4

Why is “Poms” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some language/sexual references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several scenes of sexual innuendo and references to sex and several scenes that include cleavage and bare legs, violence is comprised of mostly pratfalls and a couple of natural deaths followed by funerals, and lots of strong language and insults. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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Inspired by a true story about a senior citizen (Diane Keaton) that led a squad of older women to become cheerleaders in a retirement community, while rebuffing objections from many people. Also with Pam Grier, Jacki Weaver, Charlie Tahan, Rhea Perlman, Bruce McGill, Celia Weston and Phyllis Somerville. Directed by Zara Hayes. [Running Time: 1:33]

Poms SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A woman asks a teen boy if he is having sex with a senior citizen; appalled, he explains that he is just living with his grandmother. A woman says many times that she likes the company of several men. An woman says that in high school, the winner of a baton twirling contest won because she had sex with the judges.
► A teen girl and a teen boy hug in silhouette a few seconds in a brief sex education video and lie side by side in a bed with a sheet up to their chins, smiling at the camera. An woman hugs a man briefly. A teen boy and a teen girl hold hands briefly in a gym.
► A woman demonstrates a slight pelvic thrust for cheerleading dances and says it is a sexual move; other women laugh. Men, women and children around the world imitate a hip thrusting move.
► A teen girl in old grainy footage wears short shorts that reveal her bare thighs. A dozen women wear skirts that end at the middle thigh to just above the knee (many of their knees are swollen and they seem to be wearing heavy stockings under the skirts). A dozen high school cheerleaders wear crop tops and short shorts or biker shorts that reveal nearly full bare legs and thighs as well as abdomens, shoulders and some cleavage. Several teams of teen cheerleaders wearing crop tops and short skirts writhe, wiggle, and sway their hips for a short time. Eight women dance singly or together with gyrating hips and pelvic thrusts in a few scenes. Several women in a deep pool reveal bare shoulders and some cleavage. A woman wears a sleeveless top that reveals cleavage. A couple of women wear V-neck tops that reveal cleavage. A woman wearing slacks shakes her buttocks into the camera.

Poms VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 - We hear that an older woman has cancer; she leans over a toilet and vomits with retching sounds twice (we do not see goo). A woman goes to a restroom stall and shuts the door, after which we hear retching.
► A door opens and shuts off-screen, a woman in bed gets up and grabs a large potted plant, turns on a light, and we see a woman standing in her room; they both scream and the pot breaks loudly on the floor. A woman says the she feared that cats were eating her because she had not come out of her condo for a while. At a wake, a woman says, "People are constantly dying."
► Two women argue several times, and a man argues with a woman twice. A forty-something man yells at and belittles his mother a few times, not allowing her to leave the house or to have any money.
► A woman throws a pillow at and hits a TV screen, but nothing breaks. At a house, a woman picks up a large rock and aims at a car in a driveway; the camera cuts to the inside of the house and we hear a crash off-screen and a man shouts and runs outside to find his windshield broken and he continues shouting for several seconds. A man shouts at several women at a condo, calling them names and calling a teen girl there "slut"; the women shout at him, get in his face, and run him off their property.
► A mean teen cheerleader tells a senior citizen, "Break a hip," and the older woman responds, "Get pregnant." An older woman says that she has sciatica; another older woman reports having knee replacements. An older woman says that someone (we don't know who) had cancer and died. A woman says that she quit cheerleading as a teen to care for her sick mother. A group of women in a locker room speak of performing a dance-cheer to raise money for research in ovarian cancer in honor of a deceased friend.
► A woman holds her stomach several times, groaning. A woman grimaces and staggers on a sidewalk, falling unconscious into a yard in a long shot; the scene cuts to a hospital bed where she has a monitor on her index finger; she hears that she will be OK and go home tomorrow. A woman falls during dance practice and the scene cuts to her in a bed with a walking boot on her foot, and we hear her ankle is broken; she sits in a wheelchair in several scenes. A woman cancels all her cancer chemotherapy treatments and says to another woman that she came to a retirement complex to die. A woman in a hospital bed tells a friend that she is dying and is scared, and cries hard for several seconds. A TV funeral ad shows fireworks in the sky and states that a person's ashes can go up in the fireworks rocket.
► Eight women practice a dance cheer routine at a pep rally and bump into one another several times; a teen girl videos the action and another girl posts it online to shame the senior citizens. Two older women confront a teen girl about a video and the girl cries hard for several seconds.
► A firework explodes on screen, indicating that someone died. Men and women clad in black attend a funeral and we see a coffin with flowers on the top of the lid as it is carried to the graveside. A woman says, "She should have killed that husband years ago" (there was no murder). A funeral scene features mourners wearing black and a woman looking at a dead man in a coffin, becoming alarmed, and running out of the building. A woman wears a shirt covered in skulls.

Poms LANGUAGE 4

 - 1 obscene hand gesture, 9 sexual references, 9 scatological terms, 7 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, fools, stupid, back stabber, panty chaser, pathetic, gullible old women, mean old gals, strange men, whore, slut, grannies, old ladies), exclamations (screw you, oh my goodness, oh my gosh, good grief, shoot, oh for pity sake, shut-up, son of a ...), 1religious profanity (GD), 24 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Oh God, Jesus Christ, For Christ's sake, Praise Jesus). | profanity glossary |

Poms SUBSTANCE USE

 - A woman swallows a prescription pill in three scenes and we see the bottle each time, we see a plastic container for organizing pills by day of the week, and an older woman in a gym says she took an aspirin for a sore shoulder and in a later scene says, "I'm gonna try reefer cigarettes" (we never see her do so). A woman drinks a glass of white wine in several scenes and we see a bottle on her counter, ten women drink tall, colorful alcoholic drinks in a bowling alley café, a woman offers another woman a drink several times (the second woman declines), a woman and a few men hold bottles of beer at a poker game, two beer bottles are seen on a table at a swimming pool while a woman in a chaise lounge sips a Margarita, and several teen boys and teen girls are passed out on couches and chairs in a home among at least a hundred upturned empty red cups that indicate alcohol was consumed.

Poms DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Cancer, end of life, pain, fear, moving to a retirement community, downsizing one's home, societal boundaries for older women and the injured/disabled, elder abuse, ageism, sarcasm, fun, dignity, empowerment, risk-taking, enjoying life, understanding among the generations.

Poms MESSAGE

 - Senior citizens can still have fun, earn respect, and avoid becoming obsessed with dying.