If you’ve ever wondered about film ratings, then you have to go pick up this documentary. Kirby Dick, writer and director, takes a giant stab at the monster called MPAA. Afterwards, he then submits his almost finished product for a rating and I’m sure you won’t be surprised at what happens.
Dick starts off by trying to find out exactly who is in charge of these ratings. So he hires some private detectives and they soon find out names and faces of everybody involved. He then goes on to discover how not training or guidelines are even set on how the movies should be rated. Dick also brings in many directors who have recieved NC-17 ratings on their films and discusses what exactly warranted the rating. Time after time again they point out how two movies can have almost identical content and have totally different ratings.
This movie was awesome. It pretty much backed up everything I’ve been thinking about the film industry’s rating system for the past 10 years. It also pointed out how I’ve noticed that violence is ok in American and sex is ok in Europe. One really interesting comment by Kevin Smith (one of my favorite directors of all time) talked about how violence is even worse than sex. He pointed out how violence towards women is so commonplace in the movies and yet we wonder why it’s such a problem in our world today. I don’t think movies make people do anything, however, they present ideas and ideals that are teaching the children of America. Something to think about.
So if you consider yourself a movie person you HAVE to rent this one. I don’t think you’ll be dissapointed.
Being born in 1981 I don’t always share the same reverence for pop icons of the 60s like my parents and other people do. The Beatles are probably one of the most famous bands on earth so I definitely know who they are, but I never really go into John Lennon. I always thought Ringo was a cooler sounding name and always wondered why he never got as much fame. Then there are also all the stories about Yoko Ono - about how she was crazy and broke up the band.
Personally, I don’t know what all is/was true or not, but my eyes were sure opened to a lot of things after seeing this film. John Lennon was an amazing person. A great political and human rights activist that was most definitely before his time. The interesting part was to see how scared the government was of him. Now, what he was doing, seems so benign and harmless. Yet, this was the time of the Civil Rights movement and that was only 40 years ago. Sometimes it’s hard to believe injustices like that were just a generation before me. I don’t think they have disappeared, but they have been curbed somewhat.
If you’re a Beatles fan, like documentaries or just want to learn a little bit more about Lennon you have to watch this movie.
I didn’t really know much about Daniel Johnston at all before seeing this documentary. The first time I saw posters for it I didn’t really know what to think. However, after hearing a rave review from Shorb, I knew I had to check it out and was so glad I did.
You probably haven’t heard of Johnston either, but I bet you’d recognize some of his influences. Daniel Johnston is a musician, performer and song writer that was a very famous nobody. I say ‘famous nobody’ because while so many knew and adored his music, he never really made it big. He’s definitely what they call a cult-classic.
One aspect I was really impressed with is how they incorporated home recordings, both audio and video, into the modern footage shot for the movie. Daniel had been documenting his own life never thinking some of it could be used later on. It’s really cool to see him in action and also hear what friends and family have to say about certain events/times. Everything blended together quite well.
I’m sure this movie would bore a lot of people, but I found it quite fascinating. Personally, I try to appreciate the arts and sometimes it’s really hard to know what to appreciate until you find out a little history behind it all.
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