What is the rating of Senior Year?

Although not as adored by the critics, Netflix’s Senior Year is becoming a very popular title on the streaming service. Now, what might surprise you is that this Rebel Wilson-led comedy is rated R on the streaming platform, which means that it is not appropriate for all ages. Now, in this article, we are going to analyze the movie’s rating and explain why it deserved its R rating and whether it is really that inappropriate.

Senior Year earned its R rating because of the profanities heard in the movie, as well as the sexual themes and nudity present in the movie. In our opinion, the rating is a bit too harsh since Senior Year doesn’t even come close to the likes of American Pie or Scary Movie, so you can be sure that the movie is appropriate even for teenagers, and not just adults.

In the paragraphs that follow, we are going to elaborate on this answer and give you some additional information on the movie’s content. You’re going to find out whether Senior Year is really that inappropriate, how scary and gory it is, whether there is sex, nudity, and profanities, as well as what age it is really appropriate for. This is going to be your ultimate parental guide for Senior Year.

What age is Senior Year appropriate for?

In case you’ve browsed through Netflix, you’ll probably have noticed that Senior Year is rated R, which is relatively unusual for such comedy films; namely, Senior Year wasn’t really advertised as a teen comedy like American Pie or a hardcore parody like Scary Movie, so it was a little surprising to see it get an R rating. This means that it is suitable for people 18 years and older. Is it really like what?

This categorization means that Senior Year is not appropriate for children or minors. Now, this is a very harsh sating, as the movie is really not that explicit. It is definitely not suitable for the youngest of viewers, but teenagers can watch it without much dilemma. The movie doesn’t really have any overly inappropriate content, so the R rating is a bit too harsh in our opinion. In our opinion, teenagers from the age of 15 onwards can watch the movie without problems. We are now going to analyze some of the rating categories in the movie.

Senior Year: Sex & Nudity

The quantity of sexual topics and nudity is mild in this movie, as described by users online. Sure, there are some suggestive and mildly explicit scenes, but it’s nothing over the top and there are similar movies with much more explicit content than Senior Year. In that aspect, we don’t think that the movie actually goes overboard in this category, as you can see from the examples we have:

• Stephanie mentions “rubbing her vulva” on multiple occasions. Rubs her nipples in Principle Risers office.
• Few kissing and moaning scenes
• Girl shouts “suck my vulva” into camera
• A girl puts 2 bowling balls in front of her chest, and a man jokingly rubs his face in the bowling balls.
• A girl says she saved a room for “boning”
• A guy wearing a skirt spreads his legs in “man spreading.” His crotch area is showed and is blurred.

As you can see, this is really not much, but it might be suggestive for children viewers.

Senior Year: Violence & Gore

The violence and gore of Senior Year have been described as non-existent by some fans, which speaks enough for itself. This is a movie that does not focus on violence and gore in any way (like, for example, Scary Movie). We have some examples of underage drinking, and Stephanie is gifted a container of marijuana and gives it to an underage student, but that is about it. This doesn’t really constitute either violence or gore, so we don’t really have to worry about it.

As you can see, the violence and gore of Senior Year are nothing to worry about, as there are none in this movie. There is no blood, there are no violent deaths, mutilations, or gruesome violence. Anything even remotely violent you see it more humorous than anything else. In our opinion, Senior Year does great in this category as well and is fully appropriate.

Senior Year: Profanity

The profanities in Senior Year have been described as moderate by those who have seen the movie. Senior Year doesn’t go overboard in this category either, but the topic of the movie, as well as the age groups portrayed in the movie point to there being some profanities. Here are a few examples:

• Many uses of the word ‘fuck’.
• The middle finger is displayed quite a bit.
• The word ‘shit’ is used.

Now, as we have stated, this is nothing overly inappropriate here and Senior Year is only being realistic in this aspect. Namely, the the age groups portrayed in the movie actually do talk like this, so Senior Year isn’t really strange and can be watched without many problems and dilemmas as far as the use of profanities is concerned. In that aspect, Senior Year is more or less normal in this category, and you don’t have to worry that it goes overborad.

Should you allow your children to watch Senior Year?

Senior Year is a movie that offers a lot of entertainment and is more or less funny. The narrative of the show is nothing even borderline disturbing, but it is really not appropriate for the youngest of viewers, although teenagers will be able to understand it. There is a lot of teen humor and the movie portrays a specific period in the life of American teenagers, so it’s really for them; and while the movie isn’t inappropriate per se, younger children will have a hard time grasping the context of the movie.

The world of Senior Year was created for a specific age group – teenagers and adults. It’s not that the movie is absolutely inappropriate for children, but out youngest viewers won’t really understand the character dynamics of this movie, as well as the narrative aspects portrayed in it. The content is relatively mild and doesn’t go overboard, but that doesn’t mean that children will fully understand it. So, should you allow your children to watch Senior Year?

Well, the official ratings do suggest that you should not but it all comes down to your parental approach. We at Fiction Horizon honestly don’t think that there is anything bad in watching such movies, but the main issue is that children won’t really understand the point of this movie. They might find it funny from time to time, but they’ll miss out on a lot of the references, which is why them watching it wouldn’t be the best idea ever. But it wouldn’t be horrible either.

Children under the age of 13 might be a tad confused with the social context, but we don’t think that those older than 13 or 14 will have any problems with the movie. So, in our opinion, Senior Year doesn’t contain anything overly inappropriate for children in the literal sense, but you should ultimately decide for yourselves whether to allow your kids to watch the show or not.

• 

  Hrvoje Milakovic is co-owner of Fiction Horizon and a big cinephile. Apart from that, he likes to read comics, play games and collect action figures. He has been featured on LifeWire, Yahoo and IMDb, to name a few.