Reverse Angle:
That’s the rating
Issues abound with the PG-13 rating.
Last year’s “Lion” earned an 86 on Rotten Tomatoes (92 from audiences) and laurels including a best picture Oscar nomination. It came to home video last month. The fact-based story contains disturbing depictions of small children struggling to survive on the streets of India — scrounging for food, trying not to get killed and dodging human traffickers.
That’s the kind of real-world stuff that could give small kids real nightmares. And it’s rated PG-13. That’s the same rating as the “Hobbit,” Marvel Studios fare, latter “Harry Potter” and recent “Star Trek” movies.
It’s a wide swath. Kenneth Branagh’s clean and harmless “Much Ado About Nothing” (1993) is PG-13, apparently for a moment of exposed hindquarters in a group bathing scene. “Lion” has no nudity, just the constant threat of death or slavery (possibly sexual) for homeless children, some barely past toddlers.
“World War Z,” one of the most intense and violent zombie movies yet made: PG-13.
So countless flesh-rending, cannibalistic deaths and terrifying chases equal a flash of bare buttocks?
The list of oddly MPAA-rated films is endless, but the rating of the acclaimed “Lion” seems a good example of checking items off a list, rather than considering disturbing ideas and emotional impact. Perhaps at least more of a disclaimer than ‘thematic material and some sensuality” might have served.
There’s a great documentary on the topic: “This Film Is Not Yet Rated.” https://tinyurl.com/lyhsnj2
Trivia question
Which of these is rated R: “Boyhood,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Bully,” “The King’s Speech,” “Lost in Translation,” “Match Point” or “Stand by Me”?
The romance of imprisonment
Essentially ignored (except by its star) in the box-office glory of “Beauty and the Beast” is that nagging “Make my captive love me” storyline.
This, of course, is a cute Hollywood staple in such films as “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Red” and so many others.
Highly intelligent “Beauty” star Emma Watson addressed this in an Entertainment Weekly interview: “Stockholm Syndrome is where a prisoner will take on the characteristics of and fall in love with the captor. Belle actively argues and disagrees with (the Beast) constantly … she keeps her independence of mind.”
That element feels reduced in the current live-action film, but it’s still about a woman held against her will by someone she comes to love.
A “Beauty and the Beast” featurette on “Empowered Belle” is at https://tinyurl.com/n2xft64
Unwilling ‘Passenger’
This might have gone by the boards if not for recent comments by those involved in another recent captive romance, “Passengers.” Jennifer Lawrence’s character is forced to live with a desperately lonely man (Chris Pratt), alone together in space, fooled by him into thinking her fate was accidental. When she learns the truth, she calls it “murder.”
That’s not technically accurate, but the man would seem guilty of kidnapping and false imprisonment. Their romantic/sexual relationship, springing from his pretense, could also qualify as “rape by deception.” Many critics found those elements hard to overcome in a sci-fi romance.
But this was apparently news to the filmmakers. In another Entertainment Weekly interview, Pratt said, “I was really caught off guard by (the scathing critiques). … I’ll be curious to see if it holds up — the criticism and the movie.”
Citing positive screening reactions, producer Neil Moritz said he was shocked when one reviewer “said that we were justifying date rape. … One guy said that and a lot of media picked up on that . ... And I thought it was a really unfair thing because I think it’s a beautiful film I couldn’t be more proud of.”
Trivia answer
They are all “R”!
Michael Ordoña is a Los Angeles freelance writer. Twitter: @michaelordona