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This
hatchet job of a film about the Motion Picture
Association of America's ratings board is about
as silly as any propaganda put out by the conservatives.
Of course, this junk is coming from a liberal,
a filmmaker named Kirby Dick, an undistinguished
documentarian whose films include "Derrida"
and "Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan:
Supermasochist." The seemingly appropriately
named Dick spends an hour and a half here with
a private investigator digging up the names
of the people who rate the movies in an attempt
to deride the board for being secretive and
private.
Dick may have a point, somewhere in the boring
gobbledy-gook of this movie but it is lost on
a thoughtful viewer. Dick may spy on the rating
board, go through their garbage (in a highly
suspect scene where he finds sensitive ratings
board informational papers), expose their names
and piss of their highly paid executive staff,
but he doesn't really get to the bottom of the
dilemma of the ratings board and he doesn't
offer up any constructive criticism.
Yes the MPAA ratings board is secretive, wrong-headed
and really just a shill for the major studios
but that doesn't really get to the problem here.
The problem is that a film rated NC-17 isn't
allowed to advertise in many newspapers and
therefore it is harder to market. The real problem
here isn't the ratings board as much as it is
the age-old hypocrisy of community newspapers
and real people in these communities who use
"morality" and so-called "community standards"
to censor art.
Anyway, Dick gets a bevy of indie filmmakers
to be in his film and I'll list their names
with the names of their films that are cited
as example in this film: Kimberly Pierce ("Boys
Don't Cry"), Kevin Smith ("Jersey Girl"), John
Waters ("A Dirty Shame"), Mary Harron ("American
Psycho"), Wayne Kramer ("The Cooler"), Allison
Anders, Trey Parker ("South Park" and "Team
America"), Jaime Babbitt ("But I'm a Cheerleader"),
Darren Aronofsky, Atom Egoyan ("Where the Truth
Lies"). He also chats with actress Maria Bello
as well as journalist David Ansen and former
raters and a clergyman who has sat in on a rating
board.
This is all pretty silly stuff that doesn't
really talk about censorship or morality as
much as it delights in calling attention to
the fact that Jack Valenti, the founder of the
board who is shown speaking in numerous clips
here, first worked in marketing, or that several
members of the board, who are supposed to be
parents, have children who are well into their
20's.
If there is any interesting content in this
film, and there is very little, it is in Dick's
comments on how gay and lesbian themed films
are often rated much more conservatively than
heterosexual themed films. This may very well
be true but Dick presents his case so drably
and unintelligently that it is hard to get behind
anything he says. Of course, that didn't really
stop the 300 college student and festival attendees
with whom I saw the film at SXSW from hooting
and hollering all through the piece, as if some
sort of really great investigative journalism
was going on here. It isn't. This is just good
old yellow journalism. I love Michael Moore
and I love his films but he has inspired a whole
generation of documentary filmmakers to chuck
information and insight for sensationalism and
trash. Because of this, no one walks out winning
after seeing "This Film is Not Yet Rated."
Notes:
Viewed in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown
in March of 2006 as a part of SXSW with filmmaker
Kirby Dick in attendance. He did a Q&A after
the film which he said would be used on the
DVD release of the film.
Report Card
Content:
F
Completeness:
F
Cinematography/Lighting:
D-
Special
Effects/Make Up: C
Music:
C-
Final
Grade: F
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