Review of This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) by Smijatov — 25 Jul 2011

This documentary might not be the best one you'll see, or even anywhere near that, but it surely is extremely entertaining and engaging. First of, who would have thought that the MPAA was such a secretive and, more worryingly, generation-defining organisation? Well, the film is rather informative about that, and it gives a lot of interesting thoughts by film directors, producers, critics and even actors, and other "showbiz insiders" who have been somehow affected (read: burnt) by the ratings system.

Obviously, the documentary is extremely one sided, but that is just the reality of documentary film-making: very few films aren't. Nonetheless, It is rather interesting to see how the film develops, especially with the addition of the detective and her investigation.

Definitely gives a lot of freshness to an otherwise potentially boring film about an interesting topic. Still, as many reviews here have noted, the film beyond the initial revelation of the importance of the MPAA and it's "wicked ways" does not provide us with much to work with.

The film-maker himself, seems to be quite lost and does not know what to focus his attention to, so we end up with an anti-climactic ending about rating appeals, that really doesn't give us very much to think about, except of asking ourselves why does religion always have to play a huge role in the U.

S. in pretty much everything? Once again, as all the directors, actors and critics have noted, the U.S. should learn from Europe about films, censorship, sexuality and violence. Makes one wonder who chooses the European film ratings people, and why aren't they anonymous.