The body tasked with rating films for screening in the United States has given a film about an aging gay couple and their extended families an R-rating in a sign that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) may itself have fallen behind community standards.
The MPAA gave Love Is Strange, starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a couple who have been together for four decades but who are forced to move in with their families, the rating supposedly for ‘language’ used in the film – though many are saying the decision is just plain homophobic.
There are no nude scenes in Love Is Strange, no drug use, and no sex scenes. The raciest the film gets is two scenes where Molina and Lithgow are asleep in the same bed while fully clothed.
The MPAA has been called out over the issue by New Jersey Star-Ledger film reviewer Stephen Whitty who noted two other films released this month that got the same rating.
‘On Friday, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” will be released in a wide number of theaters. It features nudity, sexual situations and substance abuse,’ Whitty wrote in a column posted online yesterday.
‘Every woman in it is a stripper, a prostitute or a murderer. There is violence and graphic gore, including one scene of a man having his eye plucked out and another of a man having his fingers broken with a pliers. It is rated R.
‘That day, “Jersey Shore Massacre” also reaches theaters. It features nudity, sexual situations, substance abuse and ethnic and racial slurs. There is violence and graphic gore, including one scene of a woman being disemboweled, another of a naked woman getting her breasts sliced open and one of a man having his hands fed into a wood chipper. It is rated R.’
‘If there’s an equivalence among these three films, and their equal unsuitability for anyone under 17, it’s lost on me — and, I suspect, on anyone but the censors at the MPAA.’
Whitty said it would be unthinkable that the film would have been given an R-rating had it starred veteran actors Robert Duval and Jane Fonda as an aging straight couple in the same situation.
‘This is a gentle, if often heartbreaking story about two loving men in a long-time committed relationship,’ Whitty wrote, ‘What on earth is in it that so horrifies the MPAA? I’m sorry. I think I just answered my own question.’
Under the MPAA rating system an R-rating implies that a film ‘contains some adult material [and] parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.
i hate it when my “friends” just dismiss something i’m really passionate about like “oh you’re talking about that again” like shut up don’t ruin this for me do you know how many times i’ve pretended to care or even genuinely tried to get interested in what you like????? the least you could do is fake it rather than making me feel like a burden
people complain about people “faking disabilities” you know what happens way more often than people faking disabilities? people pretending not to be disabled so they won’t get treated like shit
Ok, I’m probably the last one to notice this, but even if I am, I’m bringing it up again bc it’s very important and very sad and I need to cry about it.
I’ve seen this scene about 50 times now and not once did I bother to take a closer look at Bucky. Specifically, his eyes. I always thought he was looking at Schmidt or in the general direction of the two while I focused on Steve’s face and what was happening. Now, obv, Steve is looking at Schmidt bc he’s being confronted and all that. But look at Bucky. Compare his gaze in the 3rd gif to Steve’s. It’s not trained on Schmidt. He’s looking directly at Zola and his face looks like a mixture of fear, anger and like he’s gonna puke. All of which would make sense after you imagine the shit Zola put him through on that table before Steve showed up. Just try to imagine one scenario that could be happening in his head here. Like reliving the parts where they tortured him and experimented on him, slowly took away the control of his own mind, tried to take his memories so he had to keep reminding himself who he was and began the process of turning him into god only knew what. When Steve found Bucky, he looked like he had no idea what was going on around him. No awareness that the alarm went off, soldiers abandoning their posts, the doctors scurrying off to safety. He didn’t realize he was alone in the room and no one was looking after him anymore. He just repeated his name and number over and over again and if Steve hadn’t found him, he’d have went down with the building while completely lost to his surroundings. After Steve got him out I imagine he didn’t have much time to dwell on the things they did to him. Until now. Until he saw Zola’s face and it hit him like a truck and the result was that face above. Little did he know that even if they do get out of here alive, he was eventually gonna end up right back where he was and Zola would get to finish what he started and if that doesn’t fuck you up…i don’t even. fuck this movie and fuck these characters i did not sign up for this pain
