Review of This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) by Elyse E — 04 May 2013

Cinephiles who take the ingenuity of their trekkie ways very seriously have been rightly pissed at the ratings gamble of the MPAA for years. Beyond the lobbying reign of longtime honcho Jack Valenti, which ran from 1966 to 2004 (he died in 2007), his constitutional baby suggested initially a new Band-Aid for parents too lazy to check in on what their kids are watching. Because of that filmmakers have had their work stifled by Valenti's tireless lobbying of Hollywood's richest movie houses to can liberty groups from shouting in their ear, to dish out plastic garbage with nothing at the bottom of popcorn buckets but meaningless horoscopes that only emphasize blandness yet to come.

If nothing else, Kirby Dick's documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated" catches you up with footnote highlighters and appropriately-titled song tracks on the bureaucratic giant's history in the biz. It doesn't delve much beyond that, though. There's a few stealthy sound bites from directors like Kimberly Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry") and Matt Stone ("South Park", "Team America: World Police") that'll make you want to open your windows and air your grief, but the tragedy of Kirby's overall broadcast is the seeming monotony with which it treats its issues. Chances are you'll see "This Film is Not Yet Rated" with a waif of reel fandom, and though Kirby seems to recognize this he still too often crams the same headlines on the screen like he doesn't trust that you share his plight. As if. Most of the pleasure is found in pain in Dick's film; that the satire the MPAA waves an R-rated hand to has become the same troublesome reality of films their deadpan jury simply shakes away. As Dick paints it, in Somewhere, USA, there's always time left scrambling for higher-ups to turn to.