There are plenty of reasons I expected to enjoy Kirby Dick‘s latest documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated: an “inside baseball” look at the film industry; an investigation of one of the industry’s most controversial and secretive organizations; a look at why the Motion Picture Association of America ratings always seem so inconsistent … if I actually thought about it carefully, I’m sure I could go on. But none of those reasons — as important and successfully satisfied as they were — would actually top my list of why I walked out of the IFC Center this weekend pretty sure that the film would make my year end top 10 list. What makes Dick’s movie so great isn’t just the important issues it brings up regarding the motion picture industry and, more importantly, our society and media culture as a whole, but rather that This Film Is Not Yet Rated is so damn fun and entertaining.
Much more than your average talking head mixed with archival footage doc, Dick has given us a perfectly constructed, intelligent, straight-forward and serious investigation of the MPAA that any moviegoer, even those who don’t know what the MPAA is or that they’re the organization that bestows ratings upon movies, could follow and enjoy. He details the history of the organization and the ratings system while also taking time to investigate more specific issues. But the genius of the film is the whodunnit that he constructs, creating a narrative that runs throughout the film which we can return to after each individual topic is covered. This narrative merges with the more issue-oriented topics when Dick submits his own film., i.e., this very one we’re watching, to the MPAA for ratings, receives an NC-17 and goes through the appeals process.
Yes, Dick obviously possesses a bias against the MPAA and the ratings system in its current form — as do, apparently many successful members of the film community who appear in this film — but it’s a little difficult to see what the “other side” of this argument even is. There’s nobody in the film arguing that movie ratings should be completely eliminated or are worthless. In fact, shockingly enough, one first amendment attorney who has represented several filmmakers in MPAA ratings appeals even suggests that government regulated ratings would be a better and more fair system than the current ones. Of course, Jack Valenti’s creation of the ratings and the board to determine them nearly 40 years ago was a determined attempt by the major movie studios to not face governmental involvement.
And I don’t believe Dick nor anyone truly wants the federal government becoming involved in what we can and can’t see, what does or doesn’t get made. However, the argument against the current model is primarily one of transparency, namely that the MPAA offers none. The board that determines what gets a PG vs. an R is supposed to be comprised of, what Valenti always called, ordinary people who have children up to the age of 17. They are only supposed to remain on staff for 3-5 years.
Utilizing the assistance of a private investigator, Dick discovers that these guidelines are largely ignored. He provides ample evidence that, despite what Valenti and the MPAA have stated publicly, major studio pictures and independent films are not treated nor judged the same way; that issues dealing with sex are considered by the board more damaging than those dealing with violence; and that an NC-17 rating can be detrimental and damaging to the financial prospects of any film, particularly one that does not have major studio backing.
But again, the genius of This Film Is Not Yet Rated doesn’t lie in Dick’s impeccable research and arguments, but rather in his storytelling and filmmaking. The movie is just plain funny, and not always in a “Oh, how could that person say something so inane” way. Utilizing animated bumpers as well as a phenomenal musical score by (kudos to Michael S. Patterson for the latter), watching This Film just kind of made me giggle. The tone is set early on as the opening credits include many famous film sequences that were either edited or cut completely in order to achieve a more desirable rating — all with a black box covering the “offensive” part of the image. Ironically, one is the sex scene from Storytelling in which Todd Solondz actually placed an enormous black box over most of the image rather than cut the scene that still included the dialogue, “Nigger, fuck me harder,” and in doing so managed to capture an R; the box in This Film‘s credits is much smaller.) It gets even better when Dick decides to take it upon himself to try to explain what the various ratings actually mean (which you can actually watch online here or during the recreations of conversations he has with chairwoman of the ratings board.
I can’t say enough about This Film Is Not Yet Rated. It may fall into line with other polemical documentaries as far as its subject matter, but it raises questions about issues that actually extend to every element of our society. You don’t have to care about the film industry or movies to care about this film, and even if you don’t think you do, Dick makes this informational pill so easy to swallow, you’ll enjoy going along for the ride.
Out of Focus 