This Film Is Not Yet Rated

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a smug little documentary from director Kirby Dick that offers up few insights into the American ratings system, as Dick generally places the emphasis on elements that are either overtly obvious or simply uninteresting. The filmmaker clearly doesn’t have enough material to sustain a 98 minute running time, and there’s little doubt that the film’s repetitive nature becomes increasingly difficult to overlook – with such problems exacerbated by Dick’s unfortunate penchant for dwelling on the minutia of the MPAA (ie does anybody care that they employ the use of a clergyman?) That being said, there are a few interesting tidbits to be had here – as Dick spotlights some of the inconsistencies within the MPAA’s decision-making process (with their harshness towards gay-themed movies certainly the most overt example of this). But This Film Is Not Yet Rated is ultimately just far too uneven to make much of an impact, and there’s little doubt that for every effective sequence within the movie, there’s another that comes off as nothing more than padding (this is especially true of everything revolving around the private eye that Dick hires to track down the MPAA’s members).

** out of ****