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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know the movie includes frequent allusions to sexuality and young people testing limits of authority. A 14-year-old character skips school and sells drugs: subsequently, he's suspended from school, chastised by his brother and uncle, beated by a group of older guys, and shot by his drug dealer employer (shooting takes place off screen and boy does not die). Girls wear revealing clothes, their bottoms featured in several "booty" shots. We hear that two boys lost their parents in a car accident.

Families can talk about Rashad's fears of commitment and abandonment, owing to the loss of his parents. How does his relationship with his younger brother eventually teach the value of taking responsibility and being honest?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs

Engaging, bright, and energetic, ATL follows a conventional coming-of-age plot, while also complicating the usual tale of kids coming up in the hood. The primary plot concerns 17-year old Rashad (T.I./Tip Harris) and his 14-year-old brother Ant (Evan Ross Naess), orphaned and living with their Uncle George (Mykelti Williamson). Rashad's voiceover provides a central-ish point of view, though ATL cuts all over the place, including life lessons for his friends and family as well.

A high school senior, Rashad works with George cleaning office buildings at night, trying to put away enough money to ensure Ant's education, that is, his opportunity to get out of the hood. But Ant's got his own anger working, resenting big brother's rule-making and seeing a flashier role model in Marcus (Big Boi), who rolls up as if on cue, equipped with fine rims and pitbulls.

Rashad provides an alternative, less flashy role model, working hard, focused on his gift for comic-book drawing, and increasingly distracted by a pretty girl named New-New (Lauren London). For Rashad, money is a means to an end, to getting out of the hood, to supporting his family. His friend Esquire (Jackie Long) is also dedicated to getting out: he attends private school on a scholarship, works at the golf course (where he hustles white boys who presume the caddy can't play), and pursues a college recommendation letter from a local CEO, John Garnett (Keith David). (During their first meeting at the club, they're framed to show a painting of a Confederate officer and flag behind them, denoting the oppressive history they both want to get past.)

Though Garnett has a huge house, he's not quite figured out how to be a progressive father figure, to a mentee like Esquire or his own child. And in this, he's connected thematically to George, also struggling to look after his nephews. While Rashad sees George as missing the point of parenting, it turns out that both miss the slide Ant makes into Marcus' sphere, until Ant's discovered dealing marijuana at school.

While the movie shows a range of ambitions and self-performances, by kids and adults, it doesn't judge them, but considerers how they come to see options. Certainly, Rashad's art gets the most play (his sketches show his emotional trajectory as much as they display his talent), but all of them -- including Teddy, Esquire, George, and New-New -- make their own identities through the work they do and the relationships they forge. Sometimes too earnest, mostly complicated, and always generous, ATL never loses sight of this truth, that the kids' experiences and decisions have contexts.

Families who like this movie might enjoy Barbershop and Drumline.

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Content
		CS	adults	kids
Sexual Content Kids make out in background shots at school; a romantic, nonexplicit sex scene (not explicit, facial close-ups, tenderness); frequent images of girls' bottoms, tight clothing, bikinis, and cleavage; sexual slang.
Violence Menacing gangster appears throughout; brief discussion of parents killed in car crash; brief violence erupts near the end: a boy is beaten by thugs who steal his money and drugs he's supposed to sell; a dealer shoots a boy for vengeance (shooting offscreen, but the result -- his family worrying in the hospital -- makes clear he's injured).
Language One f-word, over ten s-words, one b-word, frequent use of "ass" and "damn," slang for sexual activity and genitalia ("titty,"booty," "cuddy"), at least two uses of the n-word; some hip-hop songs on soundtrack also include brief language.
Message
	Social Behavior Living in a poor neighborhood, orphaned 17-year-old looks after his little brother, bonds (and briefly fights) with his friends through roller skating, pursues his ambition to draw comics; the primary villain (a drug dealer) intimidates the community and eventually shoots one of his workers.
	Commercialism Golden Crisp cereal.
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco High schoolers drink at parties; villain smokes cigars; brief cigarette smoking in background; a couple of characters sell drugs (and one adult considers this might be a good income for the household, before his nephew argues against it);

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