February 23-24, 2019: Crowd-sourced Non-Favorites

[For my annual Valentine’s follow-up, I wanted to keep the FilmStudying going and highlight some non-favorite filmmakers and films. This crowd-sourced post is drawn from the responses and nominees of fellow Non-FavoriteStudiers—add yours in comments, please!]

In response to Monday’s Scorcese post, Rob LeBlanc writes, “This is an interesting critique, and one that has a lot of merit to it, but I have managed to view that movie [Goodfellas] as the moralizing tale that he wanted it to be, when I've been in the right mood. It is very hard to view a protagonist who gives the voiceover as a willing cog in a wheel of corruption when he constantly argues that he has been harassed or mistreated, but I think the voiceover could be viewed as the most pathetic time yet in Henry's efforts at pulling himself into a glamorized, criminal American image that he talks about in the opening portion.”

Nancy Caronia responds, “Yeah, I find Goodfellas a tale that suggests you can be a criminal, but your ending can be no good. All three main characters are either dead physically or spiritually. Henry Hill is like Stephen Burroughs—the tale he weaves is an attempt to make himself look like the victim, but he only comes across as the biggest ass. I think he understood your critique and that’s why he made Casino—a movie I find hard to watch because there is no glimmer of hope in any of the characters at all. No romance, no life, just crooks who will die alone in a hole somewhere. Teaching a film class focused on Italian Americans in film. My students were freaked out by The Godfather—too violent (ironic considering our state is about to legalize campus carry). We will see how they do with Goodfellas.”

Andrew DaSilva adds, “What about Silence or Street Scenes which are so very different than his usual crime sort of movie?”

Ian Murray writes, “My least favorite movie, that other people seem to like, is The Wolf of Wall Street. I was disgusted within the first ten minutes and that's all I needed to know about the Wolf.” He adds, “I'm glad I didn't go to the theater, it would have been the second film I walked out of. The other was Van Helsing, which I didn't have high hopes for to begin with. As it is, I have never made it all the way through Wolf and I don't plan on revisiting it.” And he also adds, “I don't care for Natural Born Killers, either.”

Mark Lawton responds to Thursday’s Shining post, writing, “It’s also no secret that King famously HATED the film adaptation by Kubrick. I’ve seen the film several times and too feel like I am missing something. Ben, did you happen to check out King’s sequel, Doctor Sleep? (Also coming soon to a theater near you). Of course, to understand that book, you would have to forget everything about Kubrick’s ending.”

Other non-favorite nominees:

Tim McCaffrey writes, “Time travel ruins everything,” adding “It is an incredibly common and, I think, lazy plot device. Even [SPOILER] in the new Lego Movie - like, why does the Lego Movie need time travel?”

AnneMarie Donahue nominates “Girl Defined … bleck.”

Padmini Sukumaran writes, “I ABSOLUTELY, TOTALLY hate the 2006 film, Apocalypto! The main character is a complete insult to the classification of a ‘hero.’ Rather, he is the textbook definition of a Narcissistic Sociopath!” And Diego Ubiera agrees with the nomination of Gibson's film.

Marty Olliff shares, “To Kill a Mockingbird. My problem isn't the book, the movie, or Harper Lee, but the fawning fan base who drip saccharine as they gush and swoon. Thus does TKAM (when you can refer to it by initials, things have gone too far) suck all the air out of the room for AL literature.”

On Twitter, One Love nominates, “The Catcher in the Rye. The whiny entitled man child.”

R.J. Reibel writes, “The film version of A Wrinkle in Time was so so bad when compared to the book.”

Jeff Renye goes with The Interview.

Maria DiFrancesco nominates American Psycho.

Kate Smith shares, “La La Land. Tear my eyes out. Then again, I've never slept so well on a plane as I did when I decided to watch that movie, so maybe it's a love/hate thing.”

Jacquie Carter-Holbrooks writes, "Although I like Geoffrey Rush very much, I really disliked the film version of The Book Thief. I’m not sure anyone could have played the Papa / Hans character adequately."

Jonathan Silverman nominates Forrest Gump. 

And to end on a more positive note, Olivia Lucier writes, “Clark Gable III was found unresponsive in his room this past weekend. How about a tribute to the great Clark Gable and his films!” Hopefully soon, as this blog will always focus more on favorites than non-favorites, I promise!

Next series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Responses to these nominees or other non-favorites you’d share?