All American Christmas Carol
Parents say
Based on 1 review
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All American Christmas Carol
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that All American Christmas Carol features drinking, including underage drinking, casual smoking, stereotypes about trailer park life, crassness, and heavy innuendo, as well as multiple scenes featuring sexualized images of women. It also involves multiple deceased parents, including one who visits as a ghost. Though the story is a comedy about redemption, the heavy themes, deaths, absentee parenting, and casual drinking and smoking make this better for older teens.
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What's the Story?
Cindy (Taryn Manning) is not the greatest mom: She smokes, drinks, is never around, and prefers to manipulate men into covering her bills rather than put any of her real skills to use. But when she's visited by three ghosts who show her the past, the present, and the future, she finally sees what her life could be like if she simply made an effort. The question is, will she do anything about it?
Is It Any Good?
ALL AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAROL is a redneck take on A Christmas Carol -- something like Joe Dirt meets Scrooged. And it has a solid cast backing it up with Taryn Manning, Eric Roberts, and Beverly D'Angelo. Though it's loaded with sight gags and jabs at the trailer park, it attempts to show a slightly wider range of working-class folk doing their best to make ends meet and raise their families. Kids may like watching to see other children live unsupervised, shooting paintball guns and spray-painting Christmas trees on walls in lieu of real (or fake) ones, but the rampant sexualized images, the jokes about multiple baby daddies, and casual drinking and smoking, including underage drinking, make this much too crass for younger kids and likely to warrant a bit of discussion with teens.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about this "redneck" take on A Christmas Carol. What do you think worked about the story? What didn't?
Do you think a father portrayed the same way as the mother in this film would be judged as harshly? Why, or why not?
What does the main character ultimately learn about her role as a parent and her value to her kids? Why do you think her character didn't understand that at first?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: November 5, 2013
- Cast: Taryn Manning, Eric Roberts, Beverly D'Angelo
- Director: Ron Carlson
- Studio: Gravitas Ventures
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Holidays
- Run time: 87 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: April 1, 2022
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For kids who love the holidays
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