| “Near the end of his 36-year reign as president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti suggested an epitaph for his eventual tombstone: ‘He freed the screen from all artificial barriers.’ As is made apparent in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Kirby Dick's fascinating, amusing and ultimately disturbing documentary about the MPAA's rating system, the one-time aide to President Lyndon Johnson did anything but free the screen. You cannot create more artificial barriers for movies -- or, at least, the people who make them -- than restrictive ratings legislated by a panel of anonymous Los Angeles parents using inconsistent standards and applying their own arbitrary tastes. Outing those raters and exposing the system for its self-serving interests -- studio movies have always been treated more leniently than independents -- were Dick's primary goals. To identify the raters, Dick hired a pair of female private detectives, who staked out the MPAA's headquarters. Later, he used the same gumshoes to out the members of the equally secretive and Kafkaesque appeals board. Kirby took his camera along as the detectives worked, which gives the film a comic narrative line. ...”
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