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Contains strong sexThe workings of the US movie industry's ratings system receive an overdue critique in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a revealing documentary whose playful tone does not detract from its serious purpose. By putting what it perceives to be the ratings body's hidden agenda under scrutiny, director Kirby Dick strikes a blow for every independent filmmaker who has ever been forced to comply with its restrictive mandates. Some of his underhand tactics, however, make one pause.
Dick's contention is that filmmakers who work outside the studio system face a far tougher certification process that those that do, a claim supported by South Park co-creator Matt Stone, trash icon John Waters and various other rebel auteurs. Gay sex scenes face stiffer censure than heterosexual ones according to Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Pierce, while The Cooler star Maria Bello amusingly reveals how one shot of her pubic hair nearly earned Wayne Kramer's film a prohibitive NC-17 rating, the equivalent of box-office poison in America's conservative heartland.
"TORPEDOES THE MPAA'S COSY FANTASY"
Where Dick goes too far is in hiring a female private detective to expose the identities of the anonymous board members who hold such sway over every movie's fate. It's a ploy that torpedoes the Motion Picture Association of America's cosy fantasy that all of its raters are average parents with children aged between five and 17. But it's also one that opens him up to charges of mendacity, irresponsibility and stalking, let alone one hell of a collective lawsuit.
