I am – Hercules!!

“This Film Is Not Yet Rated,” Kirby Dick’s documentary about the Motion Picture Association of America’s Classification and Rating Administration (CARA), was one of last year’s best-reviewed films. Rotten Tomatoes tallied the critics’ response at 83% positive. And it’s deserving of the praise. It not only exposes a lot of the secret – and decades old - weirdness still rattling around inside CARA, but it offers a glimpse inside the world of some real-life private detectives Dick hires to investigate the CARA raters. These gumshoes don’t much resemble Jake Gittes or Jim Rockford (though one of them may sort of remind you of Veronica Mars), but they do add a surprising amount of “All The President's Men”-style excitement to the proceedings. The raters' indentities are kept secret to protect them from "influence." But Dick points out that the raters seem routinely to fall under the influence of the MPAA's member studios. So whose "influence" does CARA fear? Indie filmmakers not backed by MPAA companies? Is the veil of secrecy in place merely to hide the fact that a lot of the raters are no longer the parents of children under 18 - a fact that disputes the MPAA's claims?

If nothing else, exposing “Rated” to a wider audience tonight should sell many copies of the unrated version of “Team America: World Police,” which looks - to judge by the excised clips featured in the doc - even funnier than the hilarious theatrical version! But what matters Herc’s opinion? “Rated” played Austin’s South By Southwest Film Festival last year, so lots of the Ain’t It Cool regulars were all over it. Harry Knowles said:

Kirby Dick's film is genius. It completely reveals the hypocrisy of the system, and pulls back the curtain to reveal a sacred set of lies that the industry's "wizard" had been operating behind. … .. it's like ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, but instead of fucking Nixon, it's goddamn Jack Valenti! And they cornhole him like Ned Beatty over a log. It's fucking awesome. The thrill of the chase, the investigation, the bagging of these goddamn raters one after another. It's like a thousand times better than Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny!

“Moriarty” said:

This is a serious subject that Dick's dealing with here, and he's not making fun of it, but he also seems well aware of how easy it is for a filmmaker complaining about the ratings system to sound like a crybaby. This film never whines; instead, it remembers to entertain as it illuminates, and it keeps its anger focused in a way that's never preachy.

“Annette Kellerman” said:

if you've ever wondered about the MPAA and its criteria for rating films, this doc is an absoute must see. It made an excellent double feature with FUCK- I got to see puppet sex from TEAM AMERICA twice, and I also got to see two great Kevin Smith rants. (does he wear the same jersey for every interview?)

“Quint” said:

I'd say that this film should be required viewing for people considering getting into the industry... hell, for all high school kids and their parents. THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED is one of those rare documentaries that is both important and entertaining. Dick and his mother/daughter investigator team staking out the MPAA and following the needlessly anonymous censors, putting faces to names and names to faces results in a lot of exciting and just plain hilarious exclamations of triumph and joy. My only critique of the film is I wish Kirby had spent more time illustrating just how specifically the MPAA uses the ratings system as a censoring tool.

“Monki” said:

Kirby Dick has crafted a fine film that should be on every film fan's list of must-see movies. This is an important look at one of the most powerful organizations in the film industry. As any great documentary does, this film keeps you entertained as well as informed throughout. Go see this film.

“Maidy” said:

This is a film that every filmmaker, fledgling or otherwise, should see and stand behind. Dick's appeal is not to abolish the system, but to make it fair to filmmakers and allow them to see the faces of their accusers, and the documentary makes it almost impossible to see how any other system would make sense.

“Latauro” said:

It's a very funny film that had the audience in hysterics most of the way through. Humour is quite important (but not essential) in documentaries such as this one, where the ludicrousness of a situation like the MPAA's supreme secrecy needs to be underlined.

“MiraJeff” provided what appears to be AICN’s lone dissenting opinion:

… loses focus and puts too much weight in revealing the names of the formerly nameless. By providing the identities of the raters, Dick isn't actually doing anything to change the way things are. …

“Rated” garnered a lot of press - but the film, at its peak, apparently only played 18 of the nation’s 38,000 cinema screens. (This may or may not be attributable to the fact that the “Rated” – as befits its title – rejected an NC-17 rating and went out unrated.) It grossed $302,179 theatrically in the U.S. Divide that by last year’s average movie ticket price of $6.55 and that means it sold about 46,134 tickets. That’s .0153% of the American population if I calculate properly. Which means most of us haven’t seen it. So tonight’s your big chance. IFC is making a night of it with something called “This NIGHT Is Not Yet Rated.” IFC transmits Dick’s film for the first time at 11 p.m. ET, but the channel is also airing the unrated versions – never seen in cinemas - of “Leaving Las Vegas” (9 p.m. ET) and “The Cooler” (12:40 p.m. ET). Even though IFC produced “Rated,” tonight is the only night it's showing it; it repeats only once, right after "The Cooler." So this could be America’s last chance ever to watch this movie without renting or buying it!

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