Citizen Kane
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 13+. A Catholic review of this movie for parents.
Our review
Charles Foster Kane is taken from his parents as a boy and grows up to be one of the richest men in America. He owns newspapers, builds a giant palace, and tries to make everyone love him. When he dies alone, a reporter tries to find out what his last word, "Rosebud," meant. It is an old black-and-white film for teens and grown-ups. Young kids will find it slow and sad. The Vatican put this film on its 1995 list under Art, and the craft earns it. Its moral is one the Gospel would recognize: a man gains the whole world and loses himself. Kane's adultery costs him his career and his first marriage, and his need to control his second wife drives her to despair and then out the door. Nothing sinful is made attractive. What is missing is any answer. The film shows the hole in Kane and never points to God, so parents should supply that. Acceptable with guidance for teens and up.
For parents
Teens and up per the USCCB classification. Common Sense Media says 12+. There is no profanity and nothing graphic, but the themes are adult: adultery, a wife's suicide attempt (not shown in detail), heavy drinking and smoking, and a newspaper that prints lies. Younger teens may simply be bored. Use the ending. Kane had power, money and fame and treated them as his gods, which the Catechism calls idolatry and answers with Our Lord's words that no one can serve God and mammon (CCC 2113). The film suggests that what Kane wanted was the childhood he lost. Go one step further with your teens: no sled and no mother's love would have been enough either, because the heart is made for God. Ask: did Kane ever love anyone, or only want to be loved? Why did all his giving feel like buying? What would you have told him at the end?