Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood

A political documentary without a built-in agenda? Yep, Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood offers a straightforward look at how out-of-place many conservative entertainers feel living on the Left Coast. Made for AMC during Arnold Schwarzenegger's run for the governorship of California, the film is already a little dated since it was shot before Arnie and President Bush plummeted in the opinion polls. But Rated R does successfully deliver a wide range of right-leaning points of view from the levelheaded (game show host Pat Sajak, who feels that issues are the real hot potatoes, not political affiliation) to the paranoid (John Milius, director of Conan the Barbarian, who claims he's been blacklisted) to the curious (provocative actor-filmmaker Vincent Gallo, who wishes he could be more traditional and conservative) to the naive (members of the Hollywood Congress of Republicans, who talk about Schwarzenegger as "the common man"). Interviewees include Drew Carey, Michael Medved, Patricia Heaton, and Ben Stein, some of whom come off as intelligent, passionate people, while others espouse ironic double-standards and seem willfully ignorant of their own party's history. While filmmaker Jesse Moss, a former Democratic speechwriter, presents his journey through Tinseltown's "minority" in a too-cutesy first-person fashion, he paints a surprisingly sympathetic picture of what it's like to be rich, famous, and white…and still feel oppressed. DVD extras include deleted scenes and interview outtakes. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Blackwelder)