This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Saw This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a documentary by Kirby Dick about the MPAA, the system that rates films in the US. It's a pretty entertaining and rabble-rousing film. It sets up the MPAA as the great devil, silencing films it disapproves of, holding viewings and meetings behind gates and security guards. They also actively hide who the raters are. It's all a bit overblown. But of course the rating system is a strange, schizophrenic beast. It's a kinder version of the Hayes code, created in the 50s to prevent a government censorship board from being set up. One of the talking heads in this film argues a government body would be better because at least there might be more transparency and anyway a government censorship board is more obviously undesirable.

But to return to the MPAA again: it sells itself as merely giving an indication of how mass audiences will react to a film. They are reflecting societal norms, they claim, not enforcing them. Well and good, but a film studio will not (widely) release or market a film that's rated NC-17, effectively censoring them after all. We hear that there are priests present at the appeals-board for a rating, that the MPAA gives a pass to violence (which they do) and come down harder on sex (which of course they do) So are they dictating the moral code or merely enforcing it? There's a sort of run-around here.

Anyway, in order to investigate the board of shadowy figures, Kirby hires a private investigator who is a dowdy sort of woman who looks like someone's mom (and is) who is very nearly more interesting than the MPAA itself. She looks like a kindly secretary but sews hidden cameras into her scarves. She's a lesbian (and how appropriate because if the MPAA hates sex, they despise both gay sex and female sexuality) with a son and daughter. She is amazing and hilarious, squashily sitting in restaurant booths next to suspected review-board-members and rifling through trash, looking for clues but also looking as though she were just a bored housewife looking for an important document. I love her.

So, the film is delightful fun, angering and outrageous. Kirby even sends the film in for review by the MPAA and gleefully records the resulting phone call (they rated it NC-17 because of course they did.) It's a fun film about a divisive topic with a bonus and badass PI thrown in, just for savor.