Parents' Guide to Kids in Love

Movie NR 2016 87 minutes
Kids in Love Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

S. Jhoanna Robledo By S. Jhoanna Robledo , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 16+

Flat coming-of-age film has cursing, sex.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 16+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

What's the Story?

In KIDS IN LOVE, Jack (Will Poulter) is fresh out of high school and not sure how to fill a gap year before starting college. His best friend Tom has invited him to travel through South America, while his dad has arranged an internship at a top law firm. But after a chance encounter with the beguiling Evelyn (Alma Jodorowsky), Jack is whisked into an underground London arts scene filled with all-day-and-all-night parties and other young people (including Cara Delevingne in a small role) who don't seem to have their future planned out, and don't seem to care.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say : Not yet rated

As a London travelogue of sorts, this movie is fun to watch, but don't expect to be enamored. The kids' free-spirited lifestyle, so appealing to Jack at first, looks fun and exciting from the outside, but once he's swept up in the nonstop party, it becomes more obvious that the characters are shallow and not all that interesting -- not to the audience and eventually not to him either. Director Chris Foggin is trying to paint a picture of youth in rebellion, but he's mostly successful in showing us a group of kids with too much time on their hands and not much ambition. Few of them seem to have any way to support themselves, or any interest in much besides finding the next event. Kids in Love is not so much a counter-culture, as a look at rich kids that are all a bit too pleased with themselves. Poulter brings some charisma to the screen, and his position as the outsider in the group serves as a proxy for the viewer, but it takes him longer than us to figure out that his new friends are mostly self-entitled drips.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what life is like post-graduation: Do Jack's fears and feelings in Kids in Love seem realistic? How is this film different from, or similar to, other coming-of-age movies?

  • What is it about Evelyn and her friends that's so appealing to Jack? Having declared himself an "adult," able to make his own decisions, why is he so curious about their lifestyle?

  • How do Jack's new friends differ from his old group of friends from school? What does his decision to spend time with a new group of people say about what he's choosing to do with his life, at least for now?

Movie Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by

Kids in Love Poster Image

What to Watch Next

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate