IFC will be releasing This Film Is Not Yet Rated on September 1. The film likely caused the MPAA more difficulty that even F*ck or The Aristocrats, not because of nudity or violence, but because the MPAA is its focus. In their film, creators Kirby Dick and Eddie Schmidt not only examine the endless hypocrisy of the rating organization (the directors believe that the MPAA exhibits "a disparity of NC 17 ratings for sex over violence, gay films over straight, and indie films over studio movies") and its possible collusion with big Hollywood, but also its bizarre need for secrecy (the identities of the raters are not known).Needless to say, the members of the MPAA were very displeased when they screened the film for rating purposes, and saw not only scathing interviews with directors and actors, but also footage of many of them going to and from work. Not surprisingly, the board turned around and slapped with movie with an NC-17 rating; IFC -- which took a damn big risk by acquiring the film in the first place -- has decided to release it unrated. Oh, and they're also trying to change how the MPAA runs (good luck with that, guys). A part of the newly-launched This Film is Not Yet Rated website is a petition demanding an overhaul of the rating system, which is described as resulting in "arbitrary, inconsistent, and unreasonable decisions." While the odds of the petition having any effect are slightly worse than those of me winning the NL batting title, it's certainly worth checking out, particularly for the solutions it presents.
1. You could totally win the batting title.
Posted at 10:38PM on Jul 19th 2006 by Scott Weinberg