Movie Review: This Film is Not Yet Rated
Have you ever gone to see a movie that was full of violence but only got a PG-13 rating? Have you ever wondered why a violent movie might be rated less restrictively than a movie with nudity? Just who are the people who decide what rating a movie gets, anyway?
Kirby Dick had just these sorts of questions, and he set out to find answers. This Film is Not Yet Rated is Dick’s disturbing foray into the world of the MPAA rating system, a system that is secretive, uncontrolled, and capricious. Comparisons of films that were rated R and films that were rated NC-17 showcase just how subjective and arbitrary the ratings are, and sequences involving a private investigator hired by Dick give us a glimpse into the secrecy and sketchiness surrounding the ratings board. Ultimately, the message is clear: the system is broken in several ways, and it’s a system without checks and balances.
The film succeeds as an exposé, and it could certainly make you step back and think about the movies you see and just what their ratings mean. Unfortunately, Dick fails to provide a way out — while the film revels in the strange and sordid behavior of the MPAA it does little to suggest how to fix the problem. In this sense the film feels incomplete, although perhaps there isn’t a solution at all. The ratings are a private unit of the MPAA — no government regulation involved.
Perhaps movie ratings aren’t the biggest issue facing our society right now, but if you like watching movies you owe it to yourself to learn just what those ratings mean. It’s an interesting ride, especially when Kirby Dick submits an early version of the film to the ratings board to see what happens. You can probably guess what rating he got.
This Film is Not Yet Rated. Directed by Kirby Dick. 2006. Amazon link.