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This Film Is Not Yet Rated
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This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) More at IMDbPro »

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This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) -- Kirby Dick's expos� about the American movie ratings board.

Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   7,946 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 31% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Kirby Dick
Writers:
Kirby Dick (writer) &
Eddie Schmidt (writer) ...
more
Contact:
View company contact information for This Film Is Not Yet Rated on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
1 September 2006 (UK) more
Genre:
Documentary more
Tagline:
censorship, uncensored.
Plot:
Kirby Dick's exposé about the American movie ratings board. | full synopsis
Awards:
3 wins & 2 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(19 articles)
Kirby Dick brings "Outrage" to the screen
 (From AfterEllen.com. 19 May 2009, 1:30 PM, PDT)

Truly Outrageous
 (From IFC. 8 May 2009, 1:03 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
Informative, cheeky and funny as hell! more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Kimberly Peirce ... Herself - Director of 'Boys Don't Cry'
Jon Lewis ... Himself - Author of 'Hollywood v. Hardcore'
David Ansen ... Himself - Film Critic at 'Newsweek'
Martin Garbus ... Himself - First Amendment Attorney and Filmmakers Representative at Appeals

Wayne Kramer ... Himself - Director of 'The Cooler'
Paul Dergarabedian ... Himself - Box Office Analyst
Kevin Smith ... Himself - Director of 'Clerks' and 'Jersey Girl'

John Waters ... Himself - Director of 'A Dirty Shame'

Matt Stone ... Himself - Producer of 'South Park' and 'Team America'
Richard Heffner ... Himself - Former Rating Board Chairman
Bingham Ray ... Himself - Co-Founder of October Films
Joel Federman ... Himself - Author of 'Media Ratings'
Kirby Dick ... Himself - Filmmaker and Interviewer
Jay Rosenzweig ... Himself - Private Investigator (as Jay)
Paul Huebl ... Himself - Private Investigator (as Paul)
more

Additional Details

MPAA:
Rating surrendered; previous version rated NC-17 for some graphic sexual content.
Runtime:
97 min
Country:
UK | USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital
Certification:
Malaysia:(Banned) | UK:18 | Singapore:R21 | USA:Unrated (rating surrendered) | Netherlands:16 | USA:NC-17 (rating surrendered) | Argentina:18 | Canada:14A (Canadian Home Video rating/Manitoba/Ontario) | Australia:MA | Greece:K | USA:TV-MA (TV rating) | Portugal:M/12 | New Zealand:R13

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Michael Cuesta, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Terilyn A. Shropshire were also interviewed for this film. Their footage is featured as supplemental material on the DVD. more
Quotes:
Greg Goeckner: No, I'm afraid we don't do that. more
Movie Connections:
References Clerks. (1994) more
Soundtrack:
Don't Cry more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
139 out of 150 people found the following comment useful:-
Informative, cheeky and funny as hell!, 23 August 2006
10/10
Author: Max_cinefilo89 from Italy

Ever been curious about the American film rating system? Then Kirby Dick's This Film Is Not Yet Rated is perfect. It does to US censorship what Michael Moore has done to others: it makes everyone look like jackasses, mainly because that's what they really are.

The film explains pretty early on, through South Park-style animation, what kind of rating a movie can get in the USA: G, PG, PG-13, R or NC-17. The last certificate is the most unpleasant one, as a film with that classification won't get a proper distribution. And it's that particular rating that Dick wants to dissect.

This documentary is divided into three sections: the largest one sees various filmmakers (Kimberly Pierce, John Waters, Kevin Smith) revealing the problems they've experienced because of the American ratings board, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). The second section features the director's efforts to uncover the identities of the film raters. You see, the MPAA is supposedly composed of average American parents, doing a fair job. Then how come no one knows who these people are? As the investigation continues, we learn that one board member doesn't even have kids, while several others' offspring are already adults. So what's really going on?

The last part of This Film Is Not Yet Rated focuses on Dick's own censorship trouble, a really interesting version of the movie-within-a-movie gimmick: he sent a rough cut of the documentary to the MPAA, receiving the dreaded NC-17 (since there's some footage coming from other NC-rated films), and so we get to see his frustration as he tries to appeal the controversial decision.

The best part of the film is the first one I mentioned, mainly because we get to know the rules of the game a bit better. Apparently, any kind of "weird sex" is not welcome: oral sex (Boys Don't Cry), threesomes(The Dreamers, American Psycho), gay stuff (Mysterious Skin, Where The Truth Lies), female masturbation (Jersey Girl, a PG-13 movie, almost got an R just because Liv Tyler talks about it)... the list is quite long. Of course, you're better off if your film is endorsed by a major studio. That's why a glimpse of Maria Bello's pubic hair got independent film The Cooler an NC-17, while Sharon Stone doing much more in the audience-baiting Basic Instinct was "appropriate" enough to receive an R. No wonder most filmmakers hate the MPAA! Hell, we even find out that Trey Parker and Matt Stone deliberately put distasteful material in Team America just to make fun of the ratings board.

Another "funny" thing is, the NC-17 is only used against sex. No one ever says anything about on-screen violence. In fact, any movie can have the highest body count ever, and be rated R. If there's no blood, it might even get a PG-13. As people point out, all other countries have the exact opposite attitude, condemning violence rather than sex (I know, from personal experience, that most films rated NC-17 in the US are usually classified "15" or "16" in Europe, while excessive violence tends to lead to an "18").

As someone wisely says in this hilarious, poignant opus, ratings don't really matter. If it's a film a lot of people want to see, no rating in the world can damage it. If it's a film few people want to see, then no rating in the world will save it. That might be true (although I don't necessarily agree: the huge success of The Passion of the Christ was largely due to the rating controversies), but this movie also made me realize that I would definitely not want to be a member of the MPAA. Their criteria are too weird for normal people to understand.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Wonder how this influences European movie releases filiepxxx
How difficult is it to find this movie in stores? supermario2084
Inaccurate Rating Reasons SPOILERS (but in this case does it matter?) moviesleuth2
What is the actual influence of such a rating? summer_wine7
where can i get it? mayonaise002
Movies that SHOULD have gotten a higher rating than they got (spoilers) moviesleuth2
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