By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Movie Ratings, Or Why Sex Gets The X
Above: Director Atom Egoyan (WHERE THE TRUTH LIES) meets Kirby Dick, the crusader behind THIS FILM HAS NOT BEEN RATED.
In the Observer, Mark Kermode writes about Kirby Dick’s investigation/documentary THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, a look at the MPAA’s movie rating’s board which has handed down some inexplicable and indefensible classifications over the years.
Using an avalanche of film clips, Dick offers “thrust for thrust” comparisons between straight sex scenes in movies like AMERICAN BEAUTY, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, which earned R-ratings, and independently made films BOYS DON’T CRY, BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER, and MYSTERIOUS SKIN, which had same-sex love scenes. The studio-made, straight sex scenes were deemed “R” material, while the indie, same-sex encounters edged close enough to the X that the filmmakers had to appeal to the MPAA, or cut their films, in order to earn an R rating.
Of course, filmmakers do have the option of releasing an “unrated” film–but many theater chains refuse to book a movie that doesn’t carry an MPAA rating. That’s what happened with Atom Egoyan’s WHERE THE TRUTH LIES.
“Consider this,” writes Kermode. “In America, you can take a child to see Basic Instinct, but grown-ups have a hard time finding a cinema showing Atom Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies.”
“he ratings board, with its ridiculously secretive procedures, may be unjust in its judgments, as Dick’s ribald movie demonstrates. But it is the infantalisation of popular culture in the US which lies at the heart of these ratings wrangles, a desire to treat everyone as children, and an unwillingness to accept the responsibilities of being an adult. Isn’t it time America grew up?