Parents' Guide to Mystery Team

Parents need to know that although Mystery Team looks like a kids' movie, it is most definitely NOT a kids' movie. It's a parody of an Encyclopedia Brown-style caper in which three naïve, uncorrupted teens (Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson, and Dominic Dierkes, who also wrote the screenplay) pursue a homicide case. There are scenes with topless strippers and lap-dancing, teens squeezing bare breasts, and a naked man lying on a table with his legs in the air (no sensitive body parts are shown) as a topless woman splashes breast milk onto his butt. Teens walk with "woodies" tenting their pants. Frequent language, sometimes from kids (but never by the main characters), includes "f--k," "c--t," "s--t," "f--gots," "retards," "p---y," "d--k," and more, and a White child cocks a handgun and uses the "N" word, mimicking a gangster. Violence is played for humor, with minimal blood overall. The main characters trip over dead bodies, are threatened, and get held captive. Villains carry guns, and there's a shoot-out in which one of the teens is wounded. A character is accidentally thrown out of a car and crashes into a sign, leaving a gaping wound on her neck. Teens pretend to buy cocaine from a drug dealer without really knowing what they're talking about; one drinks bourbon at a party to blend in with adults and gets drunk. A minor character is passed out on the street with a rubber tube tied around his arm and a needle sticking out of his vein. The film's raunchy comedy takes priority, but underneath it there's a message about friendship.

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