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Parents' Guide to

What We Found

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

High school kids solve crime; violence and language.

Movie NR 2020 110 minutes
What We Found Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

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age 18+

Based on 1 parent review

AnelaW
AnelaW Adult
October 8, 2020
age 18+

Trashy

Made it seem like marijuana is common place for all teens. Way too much swearing. Couldn’t finish the movie. Only got through the first 10 minutes then shut it off.

This title has:

Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

Ninth graders Marcus (Jordan Hall), Holly (Oona Lawrence), and Grant (Julian Shatkin) are close friends who sneak out at night together to watch lunar eclipses. In WHAT WE FOUND, they call themselves the "dork club," good students who stay out of trouble. Tiny but brainy Marcus worries that starting high school will be hazardous. He's teased for being small and for being smart. At lunch one day, he shows off his tech skills by getting a student's phone to start moaning in a sexy way. That phone belongs to Clay (Brandon Larracuente), a muscular bully who happens to be the school's local drug dealer. Cassie (Giorgia Whigham), once Marcus' babysitter, has sway with Clay, and the bully backs down, but soon it's clear that Clay is in over his head with dangerous suppliers who have guns and don't hesitate to use them. When Cassie disappears, Marcus enlists his squad to find Cassie and bring the villains to justice.

Is It Any Good?

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

This movie is engaging, largely thanks to adroit editing and natural performances by Jordan Hall as the brainy Marcus and Oona Lawrence as his courageous and plucky best friend Holly. For undersized ninth grader Marcus, high school is a scary place, filled with large and menacing bullies, and we can believe that he would keep his problems to himself, given that his single mother is a night shift nurse busy making ends meet.

But at times credibility is strained when he takes on a bit too much for a kid, even a kid trying to protect his overtaxed mom. Complaints are minor, but in the movie's effort to suggest that even bullies can be nice and even corrupt people can turn around and do the right thing, it sometimes feels as if characters have changed unrecognizably by the end of What We Found.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how difficult it is for Marcus' working single mom to keep track of his exploits in What We Found. How do we know that Marcus and his mom are close, despite arguments they may have?

  • The plot revolves around a murder, but the film makes an effort to fill in secondary stories. How does Holly stand up to her abusive dad and victimized mother? What do we learn about why the captain became a police officer?

  • How does the movie offer nuances about characters? Are characters either all bad or all good? Do these characters seem believable? Why or why not?

Movie Details

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