Click here for more fun at RinkWorks!
 Main      Site Guide    
All Movie Talk

Welcome to All Movie Talk! In this audio podcast, Samuel Stoddard and Stephen Keller talk about old and new movies, famous directors, historical film movements, movie trivia, and more.


All Movie Talk


All Posts

Podcast

Posts

The Opposite of the Guilty Pleasure?

Probably everybody is familiar with the guilty pleasure, that little movie (or TV show or album or whatever) that you know deep down isn't very good, but that still resonates with you. But what about its opposite? What do you call it when you hate something that deep down you think might be good?

My ultimate reverse guilty pleasure is West Side Story (1961), one of the most acclaimed musicals, and in my opinion, a total bore with a crappy ending. Some of the music is good, but how am I supposed to take dancing street gangs seriously? And yet almost everyone else raves about this flick.

There are also lots of artsy movies I just don't get. For instance, I'm not smart enough to understand why anyone would like L'Avventura (1960). I see almost nothing good about it -- it's just a mindless sort of rambling movie.

And there are tons of movies that I like well enough but don't quite get the hype about. The Graduate (1967). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). A Clockwork Orange (1971).

In a lot of ways, the reverse guilty pleasure is even guiltier than the normal one. I mean, it's easy enough to just pretend like you don't find Anchorman (2004) hilarious, but when people start discussing how great The Producers (1968) is, should I just smile and nod like I don't find it incredibly overrated?

Click here for more fun at RinkWorks!