The Netflix’s upcoming film about the life of Marilyn Monroe was rumored to be a unique film in the history of streaming service. And now the MPAA has confirmed it Blonde, starring Ana de Armas in the lead role, will actually be the first authentic Netflix production with an NC-17 rating. However, the reason for the rating is perhaps a little interesting, as the only reason is “some sexual content”.
The film’s director, Andrew Dominik, had previously stated this wait Blonde to be rated with NC-17, so the fact that the score was completed is not so strange. However, given how specific the MPAA can become with certain movie descriptions, we can expect more rating details than just “sexual situations”. The same description is often given to movies with an R rating, so this description does not really say why Blonde is worthy of the NC-17 rating.
Surely one has to assume that the sexual situations we will see Blonde it will be a little louder than the description might show. Of course, we do not really know what this means. We could expect to see a description like nudity accompanied by this, but it does not happen, which would indicate that we can take a film that provides some powerful and suggestive sexual moments without actually including nudity. One would have guessed that making such a film would be difficult for Ana de Armas, but the actress said the hardest thing about playing Marilyn Monroe was the voice.
Traditionally, the NC-17 rating is a fairly rare result in the MPAA. Most theaters will not carry such films, so in cases where the rating is given, cuts are almost always made in order for the rating to fall to the more cinema-friendly R. It happened in a horror movie Midsommer and even cartoons Sausage Party had to make cuts to avoid scoring. This is, of course, less of a problem for Netflix, as the streaming service can make as many movies as it wants with any rating to place on its own streaming service.
That said, this will be Netflix’s first original NC-17 movie. So while streaming service could do a lot more movies with this rating, it has not – although sometimes you can find movies with this rating on the service.
What makes the situation a bit unique for Netflix is that when an NC-17 movie hits theaters, people under the age of 17 are not allowed to buy a ticket under any circumstances. In the case of Netflix, anyone with access to an account that is not adequately managed by parental control will have access to the movie.
While many media can happen Blonde to get an NC-17 rating, Ana de Armas clearly believes that the film is special and the fact that Netflix even received the movie rating from the MPAA, instead of using TV ratings, as many of its original movies do, would indicate that Netflix sees it as a major movie, even if most theaters they may not show it.
