MOVIE REVIEWS: BULLY

The Weinstein Co.’s Bully is garnering some of the strongest reviews of the year, with several critics stepping out of their roles as appraisers and becoming advocates for it — many of them condemning the Motion Picture Association of America for its decision to slap the film with an R-rating because of language. (The Weinstein […]

MPAA RATES FRIEDKIN FLICK NC17

Killer Joe, directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) and starring Matthew McConaughey and Gina Gershon, has been slapped with an NC-17 rating. While the film includes scenes of brutal violence, they reportedly are no more outlandish than countless similar scenes in R-rated films. Reviews of the film, however, mention scenes in which […]

WEINSTEIN TO APPEAL RATING FOR BULLY DOC

Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Co., plans to fight the R rating meted out to the Lee Hirsch documentary Bully, which deals with what the filmmaker calls the bullying crisis in American schools that has scarred the lives of countless children and resulted in numerous suicides. The film purportedly includes several utterances of profanity […]

CRITICS GROUP BLASTS IRAN, MPAA RATINGS BOARD

In addition to announcing its selection of outstanding film achievements in 2010, the National Society of Film Critics, whose members include some of the country’s most respected critics, has condemned the prison sentences meted out to Iranian directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulaf, who were also banned from making movies for 20 years. “Not only […]

WEINSTEIN WINS BATTLE WITH MPAA RATINGS BOARD

Harvey Weinstein emerged victorious Wednesday after successfully appealing the NC-17 rating meted out by the MPAA ratings board to Blue Valentine, which is due to open on Dec. 31. The 14-member appeals board agreed to reduce the movie to an R after receiving what the Los Angeles Times described as “a 200-page dossier of letters […]

NATO PRESIDENT URGES MORE NC-17 MOVIES

The president of the National Association of Theatre Owners is urging motion picture producers and distributors not to shy away from films that have been designated NC-17 by the MPAA ratings board. In an interview with USA Today, John Fithian disputed the widespread notion that theater owners will refuse to screen movies with the adult […]

KING’S SPEECH DIRECTOR BLASTS MPAA RATINGS BOARD

British director Tom Hooper has lashed out at the MPAA ratings board after the board slapped his critically acclaimed movie The King’s Speech with an R rating for a scene in which a speech therapist encourages the future King George VI to let loose with a torrent of four-letter words as part of the therapy […]