Starring Kirby Dick, Jack Valenti, Kimberly Peirce, Alison Anders, John Waters, Becky Altringer
Directed by Kirby Dick
Expectations: Medium.
This Film is Not Yet Rated looks to pull the tablecloth out from under the MPAA and expose their asinine film rating system. I am the choir this film is preaching to, I’ve been the guy complaining about the stupidity of the rating system for years. Therefore, this film didn’t teach me anything new, but it does entertain for the most part. If you haven’t noticed, films are rated arbitrarily and more for sexual content than for violence. This speaks to our generally conservative and sometimes backwards culture, where violence is more okay than sex for kids to see.
This film is great for the uninitiated to see the rating practices of the MPAA. The film and its director, Kirby Dick, are a bit extreme in their methods of obtaining the information for the film, resulting in something that will play well to people of like minds, but won’t necessarily sway combative viewers. It reminds me of Michael Moore’s films in this way, albeit a lot less well-made. It is interesting but a bit too long, check this one out if you’re in the mood for a bit of investigative journalism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTL3XMDwY0c
I have seen the title of this documentary bandied about and wondered what its point was . . . I am one of the great unwashed that is rather unfamiliar (yet totally disregarding) of the whole rating system. Unfortunately when Jack Valentie (SP?) devised this self rating system it became the model for many other industries trying to avoid consumer friendly regulations because the industries had gone too far. So your comments are not only right on but applicable across many industries.
Yeah I basically disregard the rating system as well, in that it doesn’t necessarily affect me, but what this film is trying to convey is that it does have an effect. Like the movies you watch as an adult might not be so conventional all the time if the ratings board wasn’t so conservative and arbitrary. That’s interesting that the self-rating system is in a number of industries. It seems wrong to have the regulators be the ones your supposed to be regulating, but I can understand from the business “We don’t need no regulations” mindset. It’s still wrong though.