Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade will screen for free across the country on Wednesday night for those actual eighth graders that couldn’t see it on account of that pesky R rating.

A24, the film’s distribution company, announced on Monday that they would be sponsoring free screenings of Eighth Grade nationwide on Wednesday. Not only are the screenings free, but there will be absolutely no, zip, zilch, enforcement of the film’s R rating.

The film follows eighth grader Kayla during her last week of eighth grade as she deals with mean girls, gross boys, anxiety about the future, and those every day obstacles that feel insurmountable. The film is almost hyper-realistic in its depiction of Kayla’s life, feeling at times like a documentary rather than a feature film.

Audiences and critics alike have praised the film’s commitment to being a genuine portrayal of eighth grade, but it’s that same commitment that earned the film an R rating from the MPAA.

In theory, that rating — supposedly reserved for more vulgar, violent, or inappropriate content –- prevented eighth graders from seeing a movie that is about them. (Of course, they could always go with a parent, but it’s the principle of the thing!)

A24’s decision to hold these free screenings appears to be a response to that R rating. On the website advertising the free screenings, the announcement reads, “Wednesday night. No ratings enforced. If you’ve been through 8th grade, Eighth Grade is for you.”

The company is clearly trying to reframe the narrative bestowed upon them by the R-rating in an attempt to remind audiences that this movie is for the very demographic for which the film has been deemed inappropriate.

So, why exactly is Eighth Grade rated R? How does A24’s decision to hold free, unenforced screenings of the film call into question the legitimacy of the MPAA’s rating system?

Why an R-rating?

You’re probably familiar with the Motion Picture Association of America’s (more commonly referred to as the MPAA) rating scale. You know – G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17! You’re also probably familiar – at least in a general sense – with what each of those ratings means. Using five different criteria, the Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA) measures each film against the MPAA’s rating system. Those five criteria are violence, language, substance abuse, nudity, and sexual content.

Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade received a R rating, “for language and some sexual material.” That’s it. For language and some sexual material. The irony of this rating is how accurate it is. What eighth grader doesn’t hear some foul language at least once a day? What eighth grader isn’t exposed to some sort of sexual material – be it in health class or on the evening news? What’s confounding is that these elements — completely normal, recurring elements in life — are somehow deemed inappropriate enough to warrant an R rating.

This rating is especially frustrating given how tame — at least content wise — most of the film really is. Eighth Grade features no substance abuse, no nudity, and no actual sex or sexual acts. Yet the MPAA gets away with stamping the film with an R rating due to some language and sexual material.

These two justifications feel pretty weak, especially after seeing the movie. The language is limited to very generic swear words that – coming from eighth graders – feel pretty naive, like watching a kid ride a bike for the first time. It’s an experimental age which means testing the boundaries of what you can and can’t say.

The “sexual material” is even more confounding. One of the strengths of the movie is the respect it gives to its subject. Kayla’s anxieties are never trivialized, never talked down to. Those anxieties extend to sexual material – another area that the film treats in ways that are both honest and age appropriate.

It feels disingenuous to use the portrayal of language and sexual material in Eighth Gradeas a justification for an R rating, especially in a movie that understands, with sincere empathy, all the different elements that make up the tapestry of early adolescence.

What does this mean for the MPAA?

The short answer is that A24’s decision to screen the film without enforcing the rating ultimately means very little. The MPAA’s film rating system has been in place since 1968, and despite some changes and adjustments over the years, it’s been widely accepted by the general public in the decades since. As such, screening a R-rated movie for a single night without enforcing the rating will hardly have an impact on the MPAA’s ubiquity.

However, by screening the film like this, A24 is helping provide a much needed reminder for audiences that MPAA’s rating system is voluntary; they are completely unenforceable guidelines to which theater chains voluntarily opt into. Now, this is hardly a call to start bringing 5-year-olds to horror films or infants to action movies. Rather it’s an attempt to call into question the legitimacy, subjectivity, and bias of the MPAA guidelines and/or the CARA.

You need not look far to find examples of how oddly biased and unpredictable the rating system can be. For example, Mission: Impossible – Fallout (you know, the highest grossing movie in the world right now…) is rated a friendly PG-13 — despite the fact that it features dozens of violent deaths, bloody fights, and sexual content.

The case of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade appears to be an exceptional mistake — one that highlights the worst of what happens when a subjective, unregulated rating system holds a strong influence on moviegoers decisions.