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This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Metascore
75 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
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  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Eric Campos
    100
    It's vital that everyone who cares about film see this documentary.
  2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    100
    Funny, muckraking documentary.
  3. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    Kirby Dick's indispensable guerrilla attack on the film-ratings system gives Hollywood a swift, smart and hilarious kick in its institutional, hypocritical ass.
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    Fascinating, amusing and ultimately disturbing.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    Has a bright, dishy spirit.
  6. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    83
    A revealing, compelling, scabrous and funny look into a system characterized by through-the-looking-glass logic and Kremlin-style secrecy.
  7. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    83
    It thoroughly eviscerates the MPAA and makes a solid case that the culture has paid the price for its censorious practices. His (Dick's) attacks are the equivalent of shooting ducks in a barrel, but these ducks had it coming.
  8. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    80
    Intriguing and often hilarious.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    80
    An impassioned piece of activist filmmaking that's as persuasive and entertaining as it is disturbing.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    80
    Feisty, intellectually engaging.
  11. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    80
    The movie is both clever and ruthless at exposing the ratings board's inconsistencies and hypocrisy.
  12. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    80
    Never really addresses why aspects of the ratings don't work, proposes concrete improvements or compares the system to those in other countries. Still, picture's bracing, hilarious and out-there elements make it a landmark.
  13. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joanne Kaufman
    80
    In the ultimate test, Kirby submits this very documentary to the tender mercies of the MPAA. It gets slapped with an NC-17 for graphic content. He appeals. He loses -- ten votes to zip.
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  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Philip Kennicott
    80
    Remarkably entertaining.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    78
    Yet, like it or not, the MPAA ratings is a system in which we all participate – which makes this film important to see if anything is ever going to change.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    While This Film Is Not Yet Rated does not suggest an alternative to the ratings board, it does expose this Tinseltown sham to some well-deserved public ridicule.
  17. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    Hugely entertaining catalog of MPAA follies.
  18. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    75
    Extremely amusing.
  19. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    75
    Ultimately, Dick subordinates scholarship to passion, which may be exactly what it takes to convince mainstream moviegoers that they should care about a system that shortchanges THEM when they go to the movies.
  20. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    There is no question that the organization is a riveting subject for a film.
  21. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    75
    The filmmaker doesn't exactly let anyone off the hook.
  22. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    Despite being a little rough around the edges (as is often the case with the work of maverick documentarians), This Film Is Not Yet Rated is more than just an angry diatribe against the MPAA.
  23. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jennie Punter
    75
    Gets under your skin as another thought-provoking wake-up call about the power of studios and the corporations that back them.
  24. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    Dick's strongest points are that these raters receive no training and are given no standards by which to judge movies. Experts in child psychology or media or social studies are not consulted. Nor are they allowed on the board. The days of counting F-words or pelvic thrusts need to end, and in the film's quieter moments, Dick makes this case compellingly.
  25. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    70
    Unlike the object of its scathing attention, Kirby Dick's documentary about the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board is merry and bright and loads of fun.
  26. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    Any investigation into Hollywood inevitably mutates into a noir.
  27. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Rob Nelson
    70
    This Film Is Not Yet Rated has a refreshingly snotty sense of humor.
  28. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    70
    As the movie shows, the whole furtive business of ratings is indeed ridiculous and should be overhauled.
  29. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    67
    This Film Is Not Yet Rated performs a great service, though not especially well.
  30. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    63
    100 percent right about our corrupt and hypocritical industry-controlled movie ratings system. Being right, however, doesn't automatically make for a strong documentary. I enjoyed a lot of it. Yet fully half of what's on screen is beside its own point.
  31. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Jared Shimizu
    63
    Raises some probing questions about the secrecy of ratings decisions in a way that entertains and educates audiences with or without agendas to protect film integrity.
  32. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    60
    Packed with amusing graphics, animated sequences and damning testimonies, this is a landmark denunciation of Hollywood infantilisation and protectionism.
  33. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    The main activity charted in the documentary is a kind of adolescent mischief, as Dick and a private investigator seek to uncover and expose the anonymous MPAA employees.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 20 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 1 out of 8
  1. ChadS.
    7
    To my surprise, "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" doesn't climax with the outing of the MPAA board. This very informative doc about the puritanical hypocrites who count pelvic thrusts instead of bullets, somewhat loses its shape after the film's selling point is made. Everything that follows is anti-climactic. The appeals process is interesting, but not as interesting as watching a private detective at work. When Becky says that she loves to spy on people without their knowledge, you wonder if those words were scripted(a voyeur doing work against an industry that's predicated on voyeurism); and also if the filmmaker chose this detective(a lesbian, with a protege who happens to be young and sort of hot) to echo the ratings board's fear of females giving females pleasure. We watch closely for any trace of sexual tension. Well, I did. In "This Film Is Not Yet Rated", much is made about how independent films get the shaft when they face the ratings board. Well, this is our faults. If more people ventured out to films such as "Boys Don't Cry" and "Where the Truth Lies", art would be allowed to be art if commerce wasn't lagging too far behind.… Full Review »
  2. TTW107
    8
    Prior to viewing this I had no idea that the members of the MPAA board were anonymous. I completely side with everything the film had to say. Why a movie can't show a little bit of pubic hair but a pg-13 movie can have a near endless death count if no blood is spilled is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. This may not be the most exciting documentary but it is extremely informative. Their ratings could have and most likely did change generations of people, and they don't even realize it. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about the fascist organization that is the MPAA.… Full Review »
  3. smijatov
    6
    This documentary might not be the best one you'll see, or even anywhere near that, but it surely is extremely entertaining and engaging. First of, who would have thought that the MPAA was such a secretive and, more worryingly, generation-defining organisation? Well, the film is rather informative about that, and it gives a lot of interesting thoughts by film directors, producers, critics and even actors, and other "showbiz insiders" who have been somehow affected (read: burnt) by the ratings system. Obviously, the documentary is extremely one sided, but that is just the reality of documentary film-making: very few films aren't. Nonetheless, It is rather interesting to see how the film develops, especially with the addition of the detective and her investigation. Definitely gives a lot of freshness to an otherwise potentially boring film about an interesting topic. Still, as many reviews here have noted, the film beyond the initial revelation of the importance of the MPAA and it's "wicked ways" does not provide us with much to work with. The film-maker himself, seems to be quite lost and does not know what to focus his attention to, so we end up with an anti-climactic ending about rating appeals, that really doesn't give us very much to think about, except of asking ourselves why does religion always have to play a huge role in the U.S. in pretty much everything? Once again, as all the directors, actors and critics have noted, the U.S. should learn from Europe about films, censorship, sexuality and violence. Makes one wonder who chooses the European film ratings people, and why aren't they anonymous.… Full Review »
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