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Parents' Guide to

My Louisiana Sky

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 11+

Sweet coming-of-age movie has mature themes.

Movie PG 2002 98 minutes
My Louisiana Sky Poster Image

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Is It Any Good?

Our review:
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MY LOUISIANA SKY is a wonderful coming-of-age movie set in 1950s rural Louisiana. It manages to evoke a time and place while showing the challenges a tween girl faces in having mentally handicapped parents, without resorting to heavy-handedness. Simply put, this is a moving story about a girl's first realizations of a bigger and potentially better world out there as she learns to appreciate what she has.

The slower pace and subject matter will make this one difficult for younger kids, but families with tweens and older will enjoy this simple story of love, understanding, and growth. From Juliette Lewis to a very young Michael Cera, from Amelia Campbell to Chris Owens (who play Tiger Ann's mentally handicapped parents), the acting is neither mawkish nor overblown, but just right. This is the rare coming-of-age movie where all the characters are fully drawn, and the story is well-balanced and evenly-paced, presented without unnecessary fanfare or gimmicks.

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