This Film Is Not Yet Rated ( 2006 ) Netflix Review

Starring: Kimberly Peirce, Jon Lewis, Wayne Kramer, Kevin Smith, John Waters, Matt Stone, & Kirby Dick

Directed By Kirby Dick

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493459/


     Right from the get go, I was hooked.  For the past 10 years I have researched and questioned as to how the MPAA rates it's films.  Just last xmas was a prime example.  The movie It's Complicated came out, and the Mrs. and I decided to attend a screening.  It was rated R, so we headed into the picture with a semi clear head and expected it to be funny.  It was funny, and a good movie but I couldn't figure out why it was rated R.  There was no nudity, Hardly any coarse language, no blood or gore, but a scene where 3 actors smoked a joint.  By that scene alone, it was handed an R rating.

     I was puzzled and pissed at the same time.  How could a movie like It's Complicated get an R rating for a joint, but yet the movie Slap Her She's French not only has drug abuse, violence, and countless other infractions only get a PG-13 rating?  I know that our rating system is flawed, but after seeing TFINYR, I know longer think it's flawed.  I know it's totally fucked.  Well to be honest, I kinda knew it was fucked before, but didn't know how secret the MPAA is.

     This Film Is Not Yet Rated follows director Kirby Dick's documentary about the MPAA and it's terrible vice grip on what we, the viewers, are allowed to see in this country.  Kirby enlists a pair of private investigators to find out more about the MPAA, and the people that set the ratings on movies.  What we find out is that the MPAA is a self governed entity that hands down ratings at will, and has no public record as to who these people are that are responsible for the absurd rating system.

     Along the way, several directors are asked to give their story as to how the MPAA cut, or restricted releases of their movies until the said directors played along ( not of free will ).  Kevin Smith's movie Zach and Miri make a porno was cut down to just Zach and Miri, and slapped with an NC-17 rating until Kevin won an appeals process ( which is also on display ) to get an R rating.
Kimberly Peirce also got slapped with an NC-17 rating for her film Boys Don't Cry.  Why?  for a prolonged Orgasm and  a motion of cleaning the mouth after going down on a girl.

     It's these and other instances that make you want to scream.  By now it's obvious that if you have violence in a film you can secure a PG-13 rating with some tweaking.  Oh but if you have almost ANY sign of adult sexuality, it's almost an instant R rating or the dreaded NC-17.  In other countries it's almost the opposite.  Weird how that works out huh?  As a whole I really liked this movie and found it very entertaining as well as informative. 

-Mr. What?- ( * * * )