Monday, February 2, 2009

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

We all know that the MPAA's rating system is sort of fucked. In the early 90s, the NC-17 rating was established so that non-pornographic films wouldn't have to worry about being automatically labeled as pornographic as a result of getting an 'X' rating. Today, that doesn't work, since most movie theaters and video stores won't rent out NC-17 movies. This movie documents the bizarre history of the ratings system, how it's tied to quasi-religious beliefs, and how sex (especially homosexual sex) gets much harsher treatment than violence. The main problem to me was that it was divided into a more interesting, educational part of the movie in which they discussed rating history and interviewed famous directors, and a less interesting part of the movie in which a private eye tries to track down the secret ratings board and discover who they are in real life (they are supposed to be all parents with kids between 5 and 17, but in actuality only one of them is). It's ok I guess, but you could probably learn everything you wanted by following this link to wikipedia.

RATING: 60%

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