This Film is Not Yet Rated

Though I have not made it abundantly clear on this blog, I am NOT a fan of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and their role in the film world. I have so many problems with the MPAA and the way films are rated, I could make a movie about it, or write a book. However, Kirby Dick went ahead and made a documentary about the MPAA and all of the problems with it.

This Film is Not Yet Rated is a wonderful documentary that figuratively made my blood boil. I’ve never been more upset after watching a documentary than I am right now. In order to get a full and logical grasp of this film, I suggest watching it on NetFlix (its on instant play) and not taking my words literally. I’m upset and outraged so this piece will be more of a rant than a logical, thoughtful review.

Reasons I am not a fan of the MPAA:

1. They are secretive. The members of the MPAA are not known, no body knows who is on the ratings board, no body knows the appeals board, and there is no clear outline as to what a film has to do in order to get a certain rating. I believe that any regulatory board should make themselves known, by hiding under a veil of secrecy, they have no responsibility to the people they are actually harming, which are the filmmakers and the film community at large. By hiding under a veil of secrecy, they can say what they want, do what they want, and they don’t have anyone to answer to but themselves. So without ANY knowledge of the creative or filmmaking process, these MPAA raters can arbitrarily rate a film whatever they choose, and the filmmaker is powerless against them. A film like Blue Valentine which involved so much creative work from everyone involved gets an NC-17 rating because of an “explicit” sex scene that the raters just didn’t like. These raters took no consideration that Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling put so much time into creating their characters so they would be authentic on screen, these raters took no consideration for the writers or directors that put their hearts into making that project. Those raters gave that film a kiss of death NC-17 rating arbitrarily and based on their own tastes, and not what was best for the filmmaker and the audience. And because they are so secretive, they never had to answer to the filmmakers or to Michelle Williams or Ryan Gosling or the public that they potentially would have robbed the film from.
2. They claim to rate all films “in the name of the children”, BUT CHILDREN AREN’T THE ONLY AUDIENCES FOR FILM! I have such issue with a rating board making rules “in the name of the kids” for movies like Blue Valentine that were not made for children! Blue Valentine was not made for an audience of children, therefore it should not be rated with an audience of children in mind! That makes no sense to me. The MPAA is rating adult movies for child audiences… they are rating movies and making filmmakers edit down movies for the sake of children, when no logical parent would even take their child to see many of these movies to begin with. I don’t know any parent that would take their 10 year old child to see a dialog based indie movie like Blue Valentine because it is not a movie for children and children just wouldn’t be interested.
3. There are no clear guidelines for what an R-Rated movie is versus what an NC-17 movie is. None.
4. Sex is worse than violence in the eyes of the MPAA. I’ve seen a ton of violent films, A TON, and most of them are completely acceptable to the MPAA. A film like Sin City gets an R rating, a film featuring body dismemberment and decapitation, really violent and potentially disturbing things, but a film that shows a little bit of a woman’s pubic hair AUTOMATICALLY gets an NC-17 rating. In fact, Blue Valentine collected its NC-17 rating specifically because of its depiction of a female receiving oral sex. No violence, just oral sex. The MPAA will allow a head to be decapitated, but oral sex is condemnable.

This Film is Not Yet Rated goes far enough to pin down the members of the ratings board, but it even interviews filmmakers who have been censored by the MPAA. Very valuable footage.

I encourage everyone to watch this film, but especially those of you looking to make films and work in the film industry. I think that its time to dismantle the MPAA and later on instill a new way that people can tell if their kid can see a movie. (My mom never really paid attention to ratings, she watched a film first, then decided if I could see it. Except, if a film was a blatant kids’ film, she just let me watch it. But everything else, she let me watch it at her discretion, put the film in context for me, and then let me watch it. The point of this is, it is not impossible for parents to self-regulate the movies their children watch.)