The MPAA has issued quite a few ratings this week for some notable films, offering a tease of what to expect content-wise from some of the most anticipated movies of the year. First up there’s Avengers: Infinity War, the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far. The star-studded sequel has been rated PG-13, which is no surprise, but the reason stated is “intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references.” Three guesses as to who’s to blame for those “crude references.” Infinity War opens on April 27th.
Then there’s filmmaker J.A. Bayona’s sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which has been teased as a darker and scarier film than its Colin Trevorrow-helmed predecessor. Jurassic World 2 has been rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril.” A bit vague, but the intense part is intriguing. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens on June 22nd.
If I’m being honest the rating I’m most interested in is for Under the Silver Lake, the new film from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell. We got a debut trailer for the Andrew Garfield-fronted crime thriller a few weeks ago and the film looks pretty insane—like if David Lynch directed Inherent Vice. The A24 film has been rated R for “strong sexual content, graphic nudity, violence, language throughout and some drug use.” That is a Hard R through and through, and I can’t wait to see what kind of craziness Mitchell has put together. Under the Silver Lake also opens on June 22nd.
There’s also American Animals, an engaging and unique heist thriller starring Evan Peters and Barry Keoghan that premiered at Sundance earlier this year. The Bart Layton-directed film has been rated R for “language throughout, some drug use and brief crude/sexual material.” I’ve seen the film and it’s a soft R. American Animals opens on June 1st.
Finally there’s another Sundance movie, Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik’s family drama Leave No Trace starring Ben Foster. The film has somewhat surprisingly been rated PG for “thematic material throughout.” It’s an extremely well-crafted story of a father and daughter who have been living off the land in the Pacific Northwest, but who are discovered and forced to re-enter society. The film opens in theaters on June 29th.
