Black Swan and Blue Valentine: Two films, one sex act, two different ratings, many pissed off viewers, and a partridge in a pear tree!
For those of you keeping score at home, Blue Valentine was slapped with an NC-17 rating for featuring a side-shot sex scene wherein Ryan Gosling’s character performs oral sex on Michelle Williams’s character. Apparently, she seems really into it, and apparently, as a result it’s too racy for regular audiences. An NC-17 rating is just about the kiss of death for a film’s hopes for Oscars and for box office receipts, as the highest grossing NC-17 movie of all time has been Elizabeth Berkeley’s camp tour de force Showgirls, which brought in shy of $30 million domestically. Meanwhile, Black Swan, which features a scene wherein Mila Kunis’s character performs oral sex on Natalie Portman’s character received an R rating (and probably dozens of horny 15 year old boys lining up for tickets). Cue mass freak out!