Blue Valentine: What the heck is an NC-17 rating?!

I love movies. There's not enough time in the world for me to watch all the ones I find interesting, but I'm slowwwwwwly clearing my movie debt. Unfortunately, it just keeps piling up on me!

Just this morning, I've read about one on the news called Blue Valentine. It's an emotionally-charged relationship drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. It was one of the most talked about films from the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. Hollywood is all abuzz at the moment because this film got slapped with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA.





Now, what the bloomin' heck does NC-17 mean?! It's the first time I've heard of it, so I did some research.


Apparently, NC-17 means that anybody who's 17 years old and under is NOT allowed to see the film. This rating is detrimental to ticket sales, obviously.

The NC-17 rating also replaced the old "X" rating usually given to films that show graphic violence or sex scenes (incidentally, it is not the rating given to porn -- the "X" or "XXX" ratings on those are self-imposed and don't matter).

However, the rating does get a film talked about. What's more important, then -- money or recognition?

The only movie that I know was given an NC-17 rating that I saw was "Kids," featuring a very young Chloe Sevigny and Rosario Dawson. It was about sexually active, illegal drug-using teenagers during the height of the HIV scare in the mid-90's. The film disturbed me for many days after seeing it and it still gives me the chills now (but that's probably just me and couldn't say the same for anybody else who's seen it.