This Film Is Not Yet Rated by Allison Anders, Kirby Dick

Adam W.
167 reviews
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How Did We Lose Control?

This movie is a fascinating expose of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) system used to rate movies. It is a very strange situation. Usually, we think of the movie rating system as being a good thing. It guides parents into making appropriate decisions for what movies to allow their children to see without parents having to do all the research themselves. At face value, that seems like a great thing. Plus, the raters on the board are all supposedly parents of 13-17 year olds - they are supposed to represent a good crosscut of American parents. Still sounds good right?

Wrong. Did you know that the members of this board are kept entirely secret? NO ONE knows who these people are. At least that was until the director of this movie hired a private eye to find out. Guess what? Of all the people sitting on the board, only 1 was actually parent of a child between the ages of 13 and 17. Not only that, but the majority were white males, and there were no African Americans or Gay parents on the board. Oh, and did i forget to mention that there are two members of the clergy there as well (1 Episcopalian and one Catholic) and that they have lifetime seats?

The most surprising thing about this movie is when comparisons were made between different films. The filmmaker showed scenes that were almost identical except that one involved a woman pleasuring herself and one a man doing the same - the woman got an NC-17 rating and the man got an R. The same goes for any scenes involving 2 people - the same sex scene will get an NC-17 rating while a heterosexual couple will get an R. Oh - and did i mention interracial sex - also NC-17.

This movie has been out since 2005 - I can't believe no one has done anything about this yet.