• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

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  Not age appropriate for kids under 16, age appropriate for kids over 17; suggested age 16.

• Is it any good?

  4.0

• Common Sense says

  Epic, dramatic tale of a Mexican-American family.

Why We Rated This for Ages 16–17

The good stuff

• Role models:

  Mostly the characters try to improve their lives. Two members get involved in criminal activities, including one that serves time in prison for armed robbery. He redeems himself later in the film.

What to watch out for

• Messages:

  Overall, a story of a hardworking, loving, and idealistic family. There are scenes of ethnic discrimination, as when authorities round up Mexicans (regardless of their citizenship), force them into trucks, and deport them as part of a Depression-era immigration sweep, or when a woman comments that Latina maids are "always getting pregnant."
• Violence:

  A character, on the run from police, is killed when officers shoot him in the head and the back. Two characters engage in a knife fight: one is fatally stabbed. Both of these scenes are fairly graphic and bloody. A woman threatens a man with a shotgun. Police strike a man with a nightstick. A few fights occur throughout the film. A graphic childbirth scene ends in a mother's death, her body shown briefly in the morgue. A mother makes a perilous journey across a river with her baby.
• Sex:

  A husband and wife kiss passionately; they are then shown naked in bed; the wife's breast is briefly visible. A man and a woman make love in a field. They are clearly naked, although positioned strategically and shot from the waist up so that nothing is revealed.
• Language:

  Characters curse frequently in both languages, with the worst being "f--k you" in English and "f--k your mother" in Spanish.
• Consumerism:

  Not an issue.
• Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

  A character admits that he sells marijuana. A character drinks an alcoholic beverage. Cigarette smoking shown.

What Parents Need to Know

About My Family (Mi Familia)

Families Can Talk About