Word: mpaa
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...deadpan assaults on the propriety of unsuspecting citizens. He basically makes fun of naive people and exploits the weakness of their decency for our amusement and discomfort. What, then, could be more delicious for Baron Cohen than spying on the members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings board - the de facto censorship committee of Hollywood movies - as they recoiled from the backdoor action onscreen and then had to consider saying no to one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the summer? Or, even worse, consider saying yes? Whether or not Baron Cohen had planned...
...Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, contained a nude-wrestling scene that had the star's face in the genitals of his fat, hairy assistant - but it received wide distribution and grossed $129 million domestically on an $18 million budget because the MPAA withheld the taboo rating and gave it an R, which means kids are allowed if accompanied by adults (or if they can sneak into the indifferently policed auditoriums showing the film). Universal, the studio that paid $40 million for the U.S. rights to Brüno and will spend a like...
...said a Universal spokesman, sounding like an auto executive putting the best spin on a dressing-down by the Obama Administration, "but it is far too early to say that there is any struggle to get there." Translation: the version of Brüno shown to the MPAA was like an out-of-town tryout for a Broadway show or a novel's first draft - except that the script doctors, or editors, are outside agents with the power to tell Baron Cohen what he can leave in and what...
...Hollywood, you see, the making of a movie involves two crucial groups of people: the creative team, who put it together, and the MPAA ratings board, which decides whether and in what form it can be shown if it is to win the magic R. In rare cases, a film's rating has been appealed to a higher committee, the MPAA's Supreme Court, and won. Generally, though, achieving a softer rating is a matter of negotiation. The board tells you what to take out, and you do it. Or they don't, and you have to guess...
...that can depend on who your backer is. Back in 2006, I reviewed This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Kirby Dick's polemical documentary about the MPAA board, which charged that the ratings system had a bias toward films from the big studios and against indie movies. I wrote: "Dick takes a deposition from Matt Stone, who created South Park with Trey Parker. Stone says that when their indie comedy Orgazmo was slapped with an NC-17, they were given no hints in cutting the film to get a less proscriptive rating. Yet two years later, when Paramount was behind...