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Parents' Guide to

Ten Thousand Saints

By S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

'80s-set teen drama has lots of drug use, profanity.

Movie R 2015 104 minutes
Ten Thousand Saints Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 17+

Based on 1 parent review

age 17+

Movie with great cast good for older teens.

I enjoyed this movie. I think it is a film that would be enjoyable for older, mature teens, but I could see where some adults wouldn't like it. The only reason I watched this movie was because Asa Butterfield has a lead role in it. I'm a big fan of Butterfield and am always interested to see what he has up his sleeve. Ethan Hawk (an under-rated actor, in my opinion) was great as well, as was Haylee Stienfeld. Other than the talent involved, I thought the other major plus of the movie was the themes it contained. There were some truly touching moments. The character arks were all very well done. As far as story goes, there is really nothing ground-breaking to be discussed. For parents: a lot of language, drugs, some sex, and very questionable parenting. As I said earlier though, there are some good themes and lessons. This movie deserves higher than 3 stars, but it's not quite worthy of 4 either!

This title has:

Great messages
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (2 ):

This definitely isn't a typical teen coming-of-age movie, though its protagonists do come of age. It's also not a romcom, though the characters do fall for each other and have sex. It's more of a family drama, though not a single character in the film seems to have much of an idea of what it really means to be a family. The teens are mostly raising themselves, and the parents have much more important things to do than actually be parents, especially Hawke as Jude's weed-growing dad, who gives his son free rein in New York and likes to smoke pot with the kid. It makes mid-1980s New York look pretty rough.

But give the film time to do its thing, and all these dysfunctional families/characters start to grow on you, even Hawke, who turns out to give the most sensible advice of anyone in the film. Butterfield and Steinfeld are outstanding (angsty, yes, but excellent, too) and Emile Hirsch, as a punk-rock member of their extended family who's trying to figure out who he really is, also gives a strong performance. TEN THOUSAND SAINTS takes some unexpected twists, but it's an interesting -- and sometimes fun -- ride nonetheless.

Movie Details

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