Netflix recommended that I queue Dick Kirby’s documentary “This Film Is Not Yet Rated,” and I obliged. I do tend to gravitate towards non-fiction after all.
And I think everyone has sometimes wondered why “This Movie” got a PG-13 rating, when it was much more bloody, violent, foul mouthed and had sooooo much more nudity than “That Movie,” which got an R.
Well, it’s the Motion Picture Association of America that decides, and this documentary wants us to know more about the process and the members themselves. The MPAA is the secret governing body that determines when X number of thrusts in a sex scene is OK, but X+1 isn’t. Unless, it’s a female, or a gay scene, in which case you can have fewer, or is it more, or…well, nobody really knows what the ‘or/or else/or’ is.
We hear from various directors that were shocked to find that their film received an NC-17 rating, when they know good and well that the Studio expects them to put out an R feature. What’s worse, the Studios basically can’t market an NC-17; it will end up as a direct to video flop.
Kirby generously provides many scenes that had to be cut to make an R rating, so of course, when he submits his documentary, it too gets an NC-17. After all, if ‘they’ have objected to these scenes in other films, certainly they can’t let Kirby get away with showing us a montage of them.
But who are ‘they’? Well, we’ve never been allowed to know. According to several clips of Jack Valenti, their anonymity protects the process. But isn’t their something offensive, almost fascist to this secret body?
And in some ways, Kirby’s eventually successful attempt to unmask the MPAA member’s secret identities provides the film’s most satisfying moments.
I struggle with a rating for “This Film is Not Yet Rated,” because it is one of those pics where intense interest in the subject matter itself would exponentially increase enjoyment of the film. Hollywood
has always been in love with movies about movies.
Personally, I enjoyed the film, but perhaps my obsession with the subject matter is not as high as those directly involved in film making: two and a half out of four stars.
Other Blogs with reviews: Resist Media, E Marketing Performance, Green LA Girl, DV Guru, And Now For Something Completely Different.