
Kirby Dick's investigation of the secretive ratings board is so good natured and humorous, that you hardly pause to reflect on some of the sinister tactics he brings to bear on the case, like employing a lesbian PI and her daughter to rummage through the rubbish and personal lives of the serving raters that they systematically unmask.
I found it all a touch too insular to really stoke up my sense of outrage. "I'm going to say the F word," says interviewee Bingham Ray, "I believe this is a fascist system." Well yes, it is vaguely disturbing that there's a Catholic priest and a Pentacostal minister on the appeals board, but Iran it isn't. The very worse thing that can happen to controversial directors is denial of access to markets, rather than say, burning at the stake or public stoning.
Another of Dick's interviewees tellingly concludes that formal government censorship might be preferable to the MPAA system simply because it would be inherently more accountable.
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