Is whats meant by 'controversial cinema' as honest cinema?

http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?V=3&SV=3&id=153284

After revisiting the film Kids (1995) (about underage sex and drug taking) last week in lecture, I realised again just how relentlessly the film lives in the real world. From the unpolished dialogue and script to the lack of clearly defined heroes and villains, the film doesn't try to romanticise or soften its message.

However despite the films realistic and tragic message, the censor’s conservative reactions to the picture branded it with a NC-17 rating, the worst rating a film can receive. After some research about this it seems that America has often classified films with the 'X' rating. My source from channel4.com's Mark Kermode discusses a recent mature film called, Where The Truth Lies" which also had received the NC-17 rating. Mark Kermode claims,

"It says something about the chronic infantilism of American culture that it has no idea how to deal with 'adult' cinema."and"

the NC-17 certificate carries with it the stench of smut, meaning that several leading newspapers, cinema chains, and ultimately video stores refuse to endorse or promote material bearing the brand."

Kids suffered the same problems as the film discussed, the rating not only limits the audience appeal but trivialises the films mature and complex material by thus being associated with filth.

In my opinion, even if Kids was made with the intention to shock it still depicts an honest and realistic world for some, which Hollywood and the censors would ideally ignore. I won't call the film moral or immoral because I think the film is amoral in that the world is amoral too and until the censors learn to appreciate the function of these controversial films in society then we are being denied honest cinema.