Parents' Guide to Downtown Owl

Parents need to know that Downtown Owl, based on the book of the same name, is about life in a small, Midwestern town in the early 1980s as seen through the eyes of a middle-aged woman who recently moved there. Drinking, smoking, and marijuana use are glamorized in many scenes of adults drinking to excess and smoking cigarettes in a bar. The only consequences are vomiting in the street once, and a drunken confrontation with verbal and physical aggression. An adult smokes joints in private. There's a joking reference to being on cocaine, an adult drinking from a flask on school property, and a teen drinking from a beer bottle and throwing it away when starting a fight. Strong language includes "f--king," "f--ker," "d--k," "s--t," "poon," "a--hole," and religious exclamations. Violence includes a fight with a punch thrown; verbal and physical aggression; verbal and physical bullying, mostly sexualized, like teen football players thrusting their pelvises while piled on top of a teammate; lots of negative references to being queer or "gay;" and sexist verbal bullying, like telling an emotional teen boy he's being "literally menstrual." Characters are in danger of dying while stuck out in a blizzard and some die. There's a brief, disturbing image of a terminally ill, catatonic person with their eyes open. Blunt sexual innuendo is used in verbal bullying. There are a lot of sexual references, like he "just stuck it in me" and asking how many abortions someone's had. A kiss on the cheek. A teacher who has sexual relationships with and impregnated several students is an important subplot. A teen straddles the lap of her teacher on a couch in the teacher's lounge. A man is seen fully nude from behind in a nonsexual context and only buttocks are visible. A few products like Budweiser and Tab cola establish atmospheres and provide historical context. An adult character says the high-school bathrooms are where girls learn to get skinny.

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