ATL Hot

No matter your economic status, everyone finds difficulties in life. While focusing on four econmically-challenged teens in Atlanta, ATL shows that while everyone's struggle is different, everyone has their obstacle to overcome.

Most high school students can relate to balancing minimum-wage work with love, striving to get into a good college, having a seemingly unreachable aspiration, staying in high school to graduate, being ashamed of your family, dealing with parents, and the Pandora’s Box of making "easy" money. The parents' side of life is explained to some degree as well. Cursing is peppered throughout but not as much as you might think and true to the language kids of this age are using. I did have to explain that the “n” word may be used among African Americans to refer to each other but it is NOT a word we white folks ever use. The love scenes are pretty accurate from what I recall about being a teenager, too: lots of kissing with clothes on and one scene where “more” is implied but not really seen.

The youngest kid in the group sells drugs to get money. I remember when I was attending a middle class junior high in Kansas, an 8th grade friend of mine was arrested for dealing, so again, relatable. ATL really demonstrates that getting involved with dealing drugs is getting involved in a world of guns and violence, petty cash, disregard for humanity, and ultimately, nothing a kid should be doing. ATL is a movie worth seeing WITH your TEENAGER. For kids and parents ages 13 and up.