This Film Is Not Yet Rated 2006

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Persuasively argues that the board is ineffective and crippled by conflicts of interest. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's fun for a while. Then you realize all this Michael Moore-ish folderol is weakening the movie's strongest arguments. Read more

Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal: The ABC's of G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 are a knotty business, one that the Oscar-nominated Kirby tries valiantly and amusingly to untangle. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: A flawed but also very funny and very welcome attack on the motion picture ratings board. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: It makes a good case for some all-American free enterprise to come up with an alternative. Read more

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: The same story in print would move more fleetly and makes its points more adroitly. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Dick doesn't exactly blow the lid off the organization, but he lifts it enough to see what an outrageously flawed outfit we're dealing with. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: An impassioned piece of activist filmmaking that's as persuasive and entertaining as it is disturbing. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Thumbing one's nose at prudes can be fun, but it can also be childish and ultimately patronizing. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Winds up feeling shallow, padded and unrevealing. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A movie that might just shake up the world of movies. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Although a couple of the film's conclusions are as arbitrary and questionable as decisions by the board, This Film Is Not Yet Rated should be an eye-opener. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: This Film Is Not Yet Rated may be a mischievous, slanted and even angry piece of work, but it articulates a rage that filmmakers and film consumers have felt for years. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: This Film Is Not Yet Rated's tone is breezy, its pace brisk, as Dick coasts us through interviews, most of them with fellow travelers in the free-speech movement, a few with those from the other side. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: This is guerrilla advocacy journalism without apology. But as you watch such cheeky bravado at work, something deep within you wonders whatever became of such investigative fervor among more mainstream reporters. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The gotcha journalism backfires; instead of looking like a crew of crusading reporters unmasking the powerful, it just looks like a couple of practical jokers invading people's privacy. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Fascinating, amusing and ultimately disturbing. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: ...A ringing indictment of a system that's not just broken. It's rigged and needs replacing. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: In a little more than 90 minutes, Dick explores the hypocrisy of the way the MPAA treats sex, nudity, violence, and profanity; provides insight into the arbitrary and secretive ratings process; and names names. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The picture, deliciously, catches MPAA representatives in one lie after another, picking up on their backtracking and doublespeak about their motives and modes of operation. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Extremely amusing and as close a look as you're likely to get at the mysterious workings of this self-appointed regulatory agency. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The movie is both clever and ruthless at exposing the ratings board's inconsistencies and hypocrisy. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: A head-spinning mystery, a brisk history of motion picture censorship in the U.S. and entertaining, often hilarious, visual proof of Hollywood's hypocrisy in his latest film. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A movie that is at once eye-opening and hilarious. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: ... a jazzy jeremiad that dances around the whole dilemma of ratings. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Point made with wit and verve... Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A fascinating look at the clandestine organization that passes judgment on a movie's acceptability to youthful moviegoers. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: As outrageous, and sometimes outrage-inspiring, entertainment, This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a blast. As a fair-minded look at the MPAA, it's incomplete and rather off-balance. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Why we choose to watch the movies we watch is strictly personal, a matter of taste mediated by finance and geography. The nature of what we can watch is something else. Read more

Philip Kennicott, Washington Post: For a film with this much argument in it, This Film is remarkably entertaining. Read more