Parents' Guide to Safelight

In SAFELIGHT, Charles (Evan Peters) is a 17-year-old boy with a physical disability that makes walking difficult and also makes him the target of bullies. One night while working behind the counter of a truck stop he sees a pimp named Skid (Kevin Alejandro) physically and verbally threaten a teen prostitute named Vickie (Juno Temple); Charles stops it by walking out with a raised baseball bat and threatens to use it on Skid. In school, Charlie is trying to pursue a growing passion for photography and enters into a photography contest. But Charlie lacks confidence, and besides contending with bullies who think he takes pictures just so he can spy on their girlfriends, Charlie's father is dying and it seems the only other person who really loves him is his boss, the sassy and cynical owner of the truck stop (Christine Lahti). But when he overcomes his shyness and befriends Vickie, she encourages him to pursue his photography project -- a collection of pictures of the lighthouses of California, a dream Charles shared with his late brother. She even offers to go with him, seeing it as a chance to get away from Skid's violent instability. As Vickie encourages Charles with his photography, Charles encourages Vickie to make amends with her family, even though they blamed her when her mother's stepdad raped her. As Charlie must learn to believe in himself, Vickie must find a way to escape Skid, put an end to her life as a prostitute, and find a way to convince her family that she was not at fault.