AIRPLANE MODE

This one earns its four stars. AIRPLANE MODE takes a premise ripe for cringe — social-media-addicted teen forced off her phone — and turns it into a genuinely captivating comedy with a cast worth watching and a character arc that pays off. You'll be invested in Ana's story by the end, and the film's moral center is strong: family, honesty, and reconciliation win.

It's not a film for the youngest viewers, though. There's slapstick violence, some lying and stealing woven into the plot, and one strong profanity. The film also implies, through a boy's nail polish and makeup, that a side character is gay — worth knowing before you press play with younger kids.

For older children and up, this is an easy, worthwhile watch with real heart underneath the comedy. Watch it as a family and talk through the phone-addiction angle afterward — it's built for that conversation.

Ana is a social media influencer with a huge following, a fashion-brand contract, and a phone she can't put down. When her distraction behind the wheel leads to a serious accident, a court sends her somewhere her phone can't follow: her estranged grandfather's home in rural Brazil, where there's barely any signal at all. What she finds there — and who she becomes without her screen — is the rest of the story.

Four stars means this comedy simply works. The cast — led by Larissa Manoela alongside Erasmo Carlos and Andre Luiz Frambach — carries the film with real chemistry, and the storyline is captivating enough to keep you invested in every relationship on screen. The film's best trick is its character arc: Ana's transformation from disconnected influencer to someone who reconnects with her family feels earned rather than rushed, and the movie clearly does the work to get her there.

There's nothing flashy about the craft beyond that, but nothing needs to be. This is a well-built, entertaining family comedy that knows exactly what story it's telling.

AIRPLANE MODE is a rare thing: a comedy about a phone-obsessed teenager that actually believes something is more important than the phone. The film's moral center is strong and, at points, genuinely redemptive — it extols family, friendship, respect, and honesty, and puts the line "the truth always wins" in a character's mouth and then proves it. The reconciliation between Ana's father and grandfather, built across the whole film, is the story's quiet triumph, and it's exactly the kind of restoration Scripture prizes.

One element deserves a plain note: the film implies, through a boy's nail polish and makeup, that he is gay. It's never stated outright, but it's there, and parents should know it going in.

Set against that is a film that takes lying and stealing seriously as wrongs, not as jokes, and that treats a teenager's addiction to her phone and her image as a real problem worth real change — not a punchline. Ana's journey out of a curated, digital life and into a real one, rooted in her family and her own God-given gifts, echoes a truth Scripture states plainly: "Man shall not live by bread alone" (Matthew 4:4) — or, we might add, by likes alone.

AIRPLANE MODE is a warm, well-made comedy with a real point to make about screens, family, and truth — and enough small cautions that it's smartest for older kids and up rather than the very young. Our answer stands: worth the trip — older children and adults. Watch it together, then talk about phones at your own table.