"This Film is Not Yet Rated" has a fine moderator in writer-director Kirby Dick, who comes across as a less imposing muckracker than Michael Moore, but no less cunning. His target is the Motion Picture Association of America (the MPAA), long the bastion of regulating the content of American films via the now-notorious ratings system; the focus is primarily on films and filmmakers who have had their work threatened with the commercially suicidal NC-17, tidbits regarding the incestuous relationship between the anonymous ratings board and the conglomerates that control the mass media, and a private investigator who, with the assistance of Dick's camera, finds out the identities of who is (was?) currently serving on the board. "This Film" is at its best when culling anecdotes from directors who have been "slapped" with the NC-17, and consequently forced to edit their work down for the more marketable R; Dick also gets good interview footage with film historians, critics, marketing heads, and former raters that bring considerable insight to the organization. That being said, "This Film" falters in its private-investigator subplot, which plays like a Michael Moore stunt writ large, and while coming to a payoff at the very end, brings the film to a halt every time it interrupts the directors' stories--with the intended effect of humanizing the subject through an outsider's eyes, it merely blunts the edge and comes across as heavy-handed. That being said, "This Film" is still a fun and very revealing documentary about, as Dick puts it, "much ado about nothing."
Review of This Film Is Not Yet Rated
