7 Movie Selection Resources for Your Next Movie Night
Poltergeist (1982) is the film that taught me how very little I knew about movie ratings and how very much I needed to expand the range of resources I use to evaluate if and with whom I should watch a particular film. My kids seem to have an insatiable urge to watch movies just beyond the realm of what I feel are easily digestible for their given ages, experiences, and personalities. This is how, one family movie night, I gave in to their request to watch a horror film, and ended up selecting Poltergeist (1982) because of its PG MPA rating. I didn’t remember much about the movie from my childhood, (spoiler alert- that’s probably because I tried to block out how much it cinematically scarred me as a youth) but I figured it would probably be fine for my eight and ten-year-old kids.
One child sucked through a television, one creepy clown, countless skeletons in a pool, and one hour and fifty-four minutes later, my children had seen their first horror film, and I had seen the light of my own ignorance glaring at me through my parental guilt. I needed to understand how ratings are given and accumulate a wide range of media evaluation tools to help me decide what movies will be best for my family and myself. Since I believe sharing is indeed caring, I’m happy to share these resources with you. Scroll on to learn 10 great resources to help you know BEFORE you watch because, “They’re here.”
1) Screen Cares: Screen Shares Rating Beyond quality and content, Screen Cares offers insights into the ability of movies to help listeners connect with themselves and others, through the thoughtful selection, viewing, and discussion of films.
Screen Cares seeks to take movies beyond the screen and into the lives and relationships of movie viewers. The Screen Shares Rating helps moviegoers decide which movies would be best to share with which people in their lives. Through thoughtful consideration of how movies are consumed, you can build connections, open up conversation, and grow with yourself and your relationships. Each week, the Screen Cares podcast digs into the emotional lives of a thoughtfully selected movie, models connective conversation based on the films, and assigns a Screen Shares Rating to the movie.
The Screen Shares Ratings include:
Love Screen- Movies that would be great to watch with a romantic partner. (Screen Cares episode example: The Big Sick)
Solo Screen- Movies that would be best enjoyed on your own. (Screen Cares episode example: The Shining)
Little Screen- Movies to watch with the children in your life, whether you're a parent, teacher, or family member. (Screen Cares episode example: Inside Out)
Family Screen- Movies that are most fully enjoyed viewed with an intergenerational group of people. (Screen Cares episode example: Up)
Work Screen- Movies that could be viewed with co-workers, in a work setting, or that offer particular insights into work culture. (Screen Cares episode example: Elvis)
Buddy Screen- Movies that feel great to watch with your best buddy or a group of friends. (Screen Cares episode example: Banshees of Insherin)
2) Motion Picture Association (MPA) Rating System Traditional and most widely used form of movie rating system.
The MPA has been assigning movie ratings since 1968, and is by far the most commonly referenced rating system. We’re talking the good ole’: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 ratings we see at the beginning of every major motion picture. It’s good to be acquainted with this system, but be cautioned that a film given a PG rating in 1982 may not be the same as a movie given a PG rating in 2022. For example: the horror film Poltergeist received the same PG rating as the frosty family favorite, Frozen (2013) because in 1982 the the PG-13 rating hadn’t been created yet. The MPA rating does not evaluate a movie’s quality, or connective power, but does provide surface-level guidance of what potentially questionable content may be within a film.
3) International Movie Database- IMDB The giant-gold-standard in movie information websites with a helpful and objective Parent-Guide feature.
This movie content behemoth was purchased by Amazon.com in 1998. Since then, it has grown to provide extensive information, summaries, reviews, parent guides, and subscription plans for masses of movie lovers. IMDB is great to learn production details of a film, view pictures and trailers, read plot summaries, and provide your own reviews on films.
Use our handy-dandy "How to Use the IMDB Parent Guide" video!
4) Rotten Tomatoes A movie review website where critics and audience ratings meet.
The unique, and most helpful aspect of the Rotten Tomatoes is the dual critic “Tomatometer Score” and the “Audience Score”. Given in percentages, the Rotten Tomato score provides insights into the relative quality and enjoyability of the film. Additionally, this resource provides a wealth of information about the content and production of movies.
5) Common Sense Media An independent review platform geared towards parents and children with crowd-sourced as well as curated reviews.
If you’re looking for insights and reviews with input from parents and kids, then you might find Common Sense Media to be a helpful way to learn more about movies before viewing them with children. Each movie receives an age recommendation and ratings based on traditional metrics like violence, sex, and profanity, but also rates factors like positive messages, positive role models, and diversity.
6) Pop Culture Happy Hour Podcast A bright, funny, and engaging culture podcast produced by National Public Radio.
Decidedly untrue to its name, Pop Culture Happy Hour, provides quick and smart evaluations of movies and culture in under 25-minutes per episode. The podcast is available on all streaming platforms, and is a great option for learning more about the general tone and reception of a film. The podcast boasts a wide range of guest reviewers and a steady stream of well-informed regulars.
7) Incluvie A self-described place to "To feel, seen, heard, and understood through film”
The majority of film critics do not reflect the general population of movie-viewers according to a report, titled CRITIC’S CHOICE? GENDER AND RACE/ETHNICITY OF FILM CRITICS ACROSS 100 TOP FILMS OF 2017 from Associate Professor of Communication, Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. As such, it feels important to include the inclusivity-focused movie database, Incluvie. The website offers an extensive database of inclusivity-minded reviews, a movie article search tool which allows you to filter films by race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and nationality. Most uniquely, the website has created their own rating system to score how inclusive a film is on a scale from 1-5.
Although there’s a seemingly endless number of ways to access information about a movie: review websites, tiktok accounts, blogs, podcasts,YouTube Channels, or traditional journalistic outlets like The New York Times or The Guardian, in addition the the seven resources listed in this article, I’ve found most of the resources all only assess some combination of the quality and/or the content of a film. The Screen Shares Rating system created by the podcast Screen Cares stands out as a rare resource that digs into the ability of movies to help listeners connect with themselves and others, through the thoughtful selection, viewing, and discussion of films.
It’s unlikely that any one of these resources will meet all of your movie information collecting needs, but it’s nearly certain that insights from a combination of these sources can give you a better picture of what you’d like to watch by yourself or with others. Screen time can seem ever present in today’s media saturated landscape, but selecting movies thoughtfully can yield precious memories and lasting connections.
If you'd like to learn more about the MPA rating system and my experience viewing Poltergeist with my children. Check out the Screen Cares Episode: Conspiracies, Curses, horrors, and MPA Ratings "They're Here!": Poltergeist (1982)
