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Red Hook Summer | 2012 | R | - 7.7.5

When a pre-teen boy (Jules Brown) is brought by his mother from Atlanta to the Red Hook Brooklyn neighborhood to spend the summer with his religious grandfather (Clarke Peters), his worldview changes and he learns more about his family history. Also with Spike Lee, Nate Parker, Thomas Jefferson Byrd and Toni Lysaith. Directed by Spike Lee. [2:01]

SEX/NUDITY 7 - After a pre-teen boy asks his grandfather if the accusations that the older man had molested a man when he was 12 years old were true, we see the older man experience the following flashback: The older man is younger, he sits with a pre-teen boy on a bed and rubs his face and shoulders as the pre-teen boy tells the man he is uncomfortable; the man pushes the boy against the bed after unbuttoning his shirt, and rape is implied; we do not see it but we hear the boy crying "Stop!" multiple times.
 A pre-teen girl kisses a pre-teen boy. A man smacks a woman on the clothed buttocks.
 A man screams to a congregation of people that an older man had molested him and we see the man try to attack the older man (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man shouts accusations at an older man, saying that he had molested pre-teen boys.
 A woman warns her pre-teen son to "keep it zipped up" (implying sex) after asking him if he was "fooling around" with girls in the neighborhood; the pre-teen boy tells the woman that he is not fooling around, as the woman laughs and says that she knows he is "sexting." An older man tells a woman that her pre-teen daughter and his pre-teen grandson were going to be "swapping spit." An older man preaches to a congregation that 12-year-olds should not be pregnant. A pre-teen girl tells a pre-teen boy that she "sees how" the pre-teen boy's grandfather "looks" at her mother. An older man and a woman say that two women are "funny friends"; the woman jokes that they will be able to get married before the older man and woman will get married.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man smashes an older man in the head with a tambourine repeatedly, we see the older man collapse to the ground, and the man instructs two men to pull him up (blood is seen coming from his head and on his shirt); the man then smashes the older man in the face again with the tambourine and instructs two men to kick him in the torso repeatedly, the man stands over the older man (blood pouring from cuts on his face and nose) and warns him that he is only allowing him to live because of the memory of his dead mother, and we see the older man stumble home, clutching his torso, with blood covering his face (the older man is later seen coughing up blood in front of his pre-teen grandson and we later see the older man recovering).
 A man shoves a pre-teen boy to the ground and steals his iPad: the pre-teen boy's grandfather confronts the man, who shouts at the older man, threatening to cut off the man's eyelids so he can watch as he kills him and we later see the pre-teen boy and the older man in a police station trying to identify the man who threatened them; they purposely do not identify him.
 A man leaps toward an older man, shouting accusations at him, saying he had molested him as a child; two other men try to hold the man back, shoving him toward the door as we see the man break free and climb over pews and claw his way back to the older man until the man is tackled and thrown out the front door of the building (as this is happening, a pre-teen girl has an asthma attack and is found lying on the ground gasping for air but she is later seen fully recovered).
 A pre-teen girl acts depressed and goes on a suicidal rant in front of a pre-teen boy, and she climbs over a barrier toward the ocean as the pre-teen boy shouts at her to calm down; the girl jumps, but lands on a floating dock, unharmed, and she begins to laugh (we learn that she did not intend to harm herself).
 On two occasions we see a woman shout at a pre-teen girl and a pre-teen boy until the pre-teen girl runs away and the woman corners the pre-teen boy and screams at him; he escapes and runs down the street as she continues to shout. An older man shouts at his pre-teen grandson, cornering him against a door and shoving a Bible against his chest, and the pre-teen boy shoves him away and he is unharmed. A man angrily tells an older man to take his hand off his shoulder and shouts at the older man to not speak about his dead mother. A pre-teen boy shouts at his grandfather, saying that his father had died while serving in Afghanistan. A woman shouts at her pre-teen daughter and a pre-teen boy. An older man shouts at a pre-teen boy and a pre-teen girl. A pre-teen girl shouts at a pre-teen boy. A pre-teen boy shouts as a pre-teen girl pulls his hair while picking it out.
 A pre-teen boy chases a pre-teen girl with a dead rat, and the pre-teen girl screams as the boy chases her out of a building. A pre-teen boy scares a pre-teen girl with a dead rat; the pre-teen boy then throws the rat in a trashcan after photographing its body.
 An older man tells a pre-teen boy that 11 children had died of asthma in the past two years because EMTs have been unable to find them in their housing units. An older man tells a pre-teen boy that two different women's children had died of AIDS. A pre-teen girl tells a pre-teen boy that her sister is dead. A man tells an older man that his mother had gotten sick and died. A woman tells an older man that her daughter had died of AIDS. An older man preaches to a congregation about cruise ships giving children asthma from their smokestacks. A pre-teen girl asks a pre-teen boy a hypothetical question: "Who killed Biggie and TuPac?" An older man tells a pre-teen boy (his grandson) that television is "devil's talk." A man preaches to a congregation that before a serious heart surgery the doctor warned him that he might not wake up and the man preaches that he was okay with dying because he had made his peace.
 A boy tells his mother "someone peed in there" in reference to an elevator and the woman gets in the elevator and agrees with the boy. An older man rants to himself that he does not care if people were to defecate on themselves.

LANGUAGE 5 - At least 1 F-word, 4 sexual references, 4 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms (2 mild), 8 mild obscenities, 13 derogatory terms for African-Americans, 1 derogatory term for mentally handicapped, name-calling (shady people, stupid, strange boy, dead stinkin' smell horrible funky Red Hook Brooklyn rat, fast [anatomical term deleted] project girls, Mr. Potato Chip, drunk, broke down, bully, loopy [anatomical term deleted] fruit loop, Judas, freaks, hypocrite, monster, poisonous [mild obscenity deleted], crazy [derogatory term for African-American deleted], silly butt), exclamations (shut up), 6 religious profanities, 3 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - We see a man consistently intoxicated throughout the movie, we see a man drinking liquor and pouring wine into a can of soda and drinking it while acting intoxicated, a man makes a rude remark about a man drinking wine in a church is wrong because it is "not a Catholic church," and a man preaches to a congregation about an older man being an alcoholic.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Child molestation, preaching, changing life, religion, regret, secrecy, coming of age, section 8 housing, economic depression.

MESSAGE - It can be very difficult to confront and come to terms with family secrets.

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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