This Film is Not Yet Rated

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): *** ½

Kirby Dick's most entertaining documentary on the mysterious Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system and the board it operates in conjunction with the National Association of Theater Owners, does a smart thing fairly early on: it becomes an investigation of the organization itself rather than simply a film of interviews about how twisted the system is. (It doesn't take much to convince us of this.) Dick is more interested in how it works, or doesn't work, and who actually comprises the ratings board itself - an anonymous/secret group of "regular" folks who hold the power in their hands to make or break the life of a film before it ever sees the light of day. The villain here, such as he is, long-time MPAA president and just as interestingly, pro-copyright lobbyist Jack Valenti, wasn't interviewed directly for this film (I'm sure he refused) but is given plenty of rope to hang himself here with television interviews and other appearances. The doc even reveals him to be a fibber - denying that harsher ratings are given to films based on sex over violence, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The wholly engaging interviews include those filmmakers who have had to deal with the MPAA's quirky appeals board: Kevin Smith, Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry), John Waters, of course, speaking specifically on his appeal of the NC-17 rating given his A Dirty Shame, though doubtlessly no stranger to the ratings board before that; Atom Egoyan (whose film Where the Truth Lies ultimately barely received a release after its NC-17 rating stuck); and Matt Stone (Team America; South Park), among others. All are just as curious as Kirby Dick himself as to the identity of the board members and the film becomes the story of "outing" these people, with the help of a woman detective and her young assistant who go with Dick around L.A. snooping through trash cans, waiting in front of offices and calling ad nauseum. While this section of the film occasionally veers off track and loses focus, overall it remains both fascinating and often quite hilarious.

The film also includes clips from some of the sequences in question - from the riotous puppet porn montage in Team America to the brutal rape in Boys Don't Cry - that frowned upon by the ratings board.

While I actually understand the ratings board's desire to keep its members full identities secret, and the documentary doesn't really tell "another side" here, I agree with Dick that the system itself is unconstitutional and often categorically unfair. (Why does it allow so much more violence than sex? Why - as filmmaker Jamie Babbitt, a young lesbian parent, asks in the film - are all the "typical" parents on the board straight and white - why is that the definition?) And revelations here as to several "guest" members of the appeals board will further disturb and rankle you.

The film will make you wonder how many of these interesting, "edgy" independent filmmakers will get anything made at all - anything, that is, without compromising themselves artistically to ensure distribution. If that's not censorship, I don't know what is.