Review: This Film Is Not Yet Rated

2006/Not rated (though would be NC-17 if it were)/Documentary

This film was marketed as a documentary that took a look at the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) secretive rating system. It was supposed to be an expose, unveiling favoritism and inconsistency in the ratings given by the MPAA.

It was actually a whiny attack by a man who basically wants to see more sex in movies (allow more people under 18 to view it) and attempted to undermine the MPAA by slapping an undue "censor" moniker upon it.

I had just watched the G-rated "Chicken Little." This movie was, at that the very least, PG and had no business being viewed by "all audiences." This is what I was thinking when I read that Kirby Dick (Director) felt that there was favoritism in the rating system. Does Disney get a G rating because they asked for it while "The Simpson's Movie" gets stuck with a PG-13? Does one director get special treatment over another? These were the types of secrets I was hoping to discover.

Alas, what I got was an embittered man with an axe to grind upset that some movies receive the NC-17 rating while others get an R. His complaint was that it's primarily Indy films that get the NC-17, while studio pics get the R. Is this really a worthy discussion? Truth be told, I agreed with him in a round-about sort of way. One of his arguments was that sexually explicit movies get the NC-17 but really violent movies don't. His solution was to stop rating the quasi-porns as NC-17. Mine is to properly rate the violent movies.

He did have some good points regarding the rating system. Why is it so secretive? Why aren't there some common guidelines? Why is it, in the appeals process, you can't reference another picture that got a different rating but had similar or worse footage? Like him, I have no answer for these questions and think that they deserve a second look.

There was one part where he contradicted himself and lost nearly all of his credibility with me: He was partially campaigning for a set of standards and rules that filmmakers could follow so they could have a better idea of the rating they would receive. But at the same time, he was complaining about when the MPAA first started their regulations (this was before there was a rating system, they simply had hard and fast rules to which the studios had to adhere). So, on the one hand he wanted guidelines, and on the other when they existed, according to him, they were bad. I think he's forgotten that the time when the regulations were in place is referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood because they put out so many great movies!

All in all, his contention that the MPAA rating system is censorship was completely baseless. Not only is it a voluntary rating but it's now en vogue to have the "unrated" version (which only means the MPAA raters didn't see the footage, it doesn't mean it's NC-17 material.) He managed to learn the identities of all of the "super secret" raters and the people who do the appeals process and they still weren't able to censor his movie.

My final thoughts: Don't bother wasting your time on this movie. I'm a little sorry that I did, but at least I can save some from making the same mistake.

1 out of 5 stars.