over-rated

The ridiculous reason why Ben Whishaw’s queer drama ‘Passages’ received an NC-17 rating

By · 10 comments · Updated on January 26, 2024
Image Credit: ‘Passages,’ MUBI

This week, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) caused a stir when it labeled the film Passages—the queer love triangle drama from acclaimed filmmaker Ira Sachs—with an infamous NC-17 rating.

Immediately, that puts a certain idea in your head about what kind of movie Passages might be: “Oh, NC-17? They must be f*ckin’ in this one—gratuitous nudity, explicit sex, and more, right?”

Well, not quite.

While the feature does include its fair share of love-making scenes (including an extended one with a “rear view,” which we’ll get to in a minute), it’s certainly not lewd or crude, and no more revealing than plenty of other films that have garnered an R rating.

So what’s the problem then? As many are quick to point out, Passages‘ NC-17 rating reeks of homophobia, inspiring writer-director Sachs to call out the MPA for being “anti-gay, anti-progress, anti-sex.”

Image Credit: ‘Passages,’ MUBI

To back up a bit, Passages is the story of a long-term couple, fussy director Tomas (Great Freedom‘s Franz Rogowski) and introspective artist Martin (out star Ben Whishaw), and a spirited woman named Agathe (Blue Is The Warmest Color‘s Adèle Exarchopoulos) who Tomas sparks a connection with after a surprising tryst.

Torn between his partner and his new lover, Tomas ricochets to and from both of their lives, making things messier and messier in the process. Passages is thorny, horny, darkly funny, romantic, and, yes, very, very sexy.

When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, one scene in particular had audiences talking, in which we watch from behind as Tomas and Martin have passionate sex—in one unbroken, minutes-long scene. We never thought we’d see so much of Whishaw’s butt, a man known for playing the buttoned-up Q in the James Bond movies and for voicing the adorable Paddington The Bear.

Intimate and erotic? Oh yeah, very much so. But explicit and lascivious? Well, apparently it depends who you’re asking.

In this case, it’s the MPA. Back in 1990, they created the NC-17 rating (meaning, “no one 17 or under should be admitted”) to replace the more informal X-rating, mainly to differentiate from films that were not “pornographic or obscene,” but featured content only deemed suitable for adults—typically explicit sex and nudity, extreme violence, or some combination therein.

Other films that have received the rating include Showgirls (for gratuitous sex and nudity throughout), Bad Lieutenant (for graphic drug use and sexual violence), and, upon its 1997 re-release, John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (for a laundry list of reasons, including that moment where Divine eats sh*t).

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Anyone who’s seen Passages can tell you its nowhere near the gratuitousness of any of those films (all of which we still love, by the way). There are fleeting moments of nudity, sure, and there are a handful of steamy sex scenes, but it’s all between consensual adults—and all artfully framed and lensed by Sachs and his cinematographer, Josée Deshaies, for that matter.

And while we agree that Passages should only be for adult audiences, it’s more about what the NC-17 label implies (after all, an “R” rating also means a film is for adults—or anyone under 17 only if they’re accompanied by adults).

In a statement shared with the Los Angeles Times, the film’s distributor, MUBI, says they are “deeply disappointed” by the rating, laying it out plainly:

“Passages is an honest and groundbreaking portrait of contemporary relationships, both queer and straight. Frank and thoughtful portrayals of sex are essential to cinematic storytelling and in service of representation more broadly. An NC-17 rating suggests the film’s depiction of sex is explicit or gratuitous, which it is not, and that mainstream audiences will be offended by this portrayal, which we believe is also false.”

The whole thing brings to mind the recent R-rating for Amazon’s upcoming gay rom-com Red, White & Royal Blue, based off the popular book of the same name by Casey McQuiston—itself a massive hit with older teen and young adult audiences.

To its credit, Red, White & Royal Blue isn’t coy about the gay relationship at its center and does include a small handful of fleeting love-making scenes, but they are—in this writer’s estimation (having seen an early preview of the film)—pretty tame and barely even show skin.

So what, then, warrants an R? And why did Passages earn the strictest rating possible? Well, there’s one thing these two movies have in common… Are films that feature gay themes and gay sex judged on a harsher scale?

The MPA claims this is not the case, telling the LA Times, “the sexual orientation of a character or characters is not considered as part of the rating process.”

Image Credit: ‘Passages,’ MUBI

But Ira Sachs doesn’t mince words when discussing the MPA and Passages‘ rating in the same article:

“We’re talking about a board that is not visible, that doesn’t make its rules known, that exists in silence,” the filmmaker says. “We’re talking about a select group of people who have a certain bent, which seems anti-gay, anti-progress, anti-sex—a lot of things which I’m not.”

“I think we got something that looks like it was written by my great-aunt,” Sachs continues, responding on comments the MPA shared with their NC-17 rating. “In this case, it was about *ss and fingers and bodies in motion. And it’s very funny, because it’s written by someone who seems to be literally from a different era.”

But don’t worry, Sachs and distributor Mubi want audiences to see said “*ss and fingers and bodies in motion” as they intended, and share they have no plans to edit the movie in order to get an R-rating before release.

“There’s no untangling the film from what it is,” Sachs says. “It is a film that is very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives. And to shift that now would be to create a very different movie.”

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, you can see for yourself tonight, Thursday July 20, when the film screens as part of the Outfest LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Passages begins playing in select U.S. theaters on August 4. Revisit its excellent trailer below:

Related:

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