Been awhile since we've done this thread, and it's always fun. Here are some of my picks:

  • The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) is really bad. Will Smith's inspirational moment is going to the New York Stock Exchange and seeing all the happy rich guys in suits walking around, and wanting to be like them. Having to do stuff like brown-nose executives, sleep in train station bathrooms and pull his son out of daycare due to lack of money are presented not as flaws of the system but evidence of Smith's smart bootstraps-oriented thinking. This movie is the Mein Kampf of liberalism.

  • Air (2023) is really bad too. Literally a feature-length Nike commercial coupled with a fuckton of Michael Jordan worship, the message being that a bunch of rich guys deserved to get even richer because they signed a sneaker deal. The closing 5 minutes of the movie are a "where are they now" montage showing how much money all the Nike executives made, yay!

  • Anastasia (1997), which portrays the Russian Revolution as the result of a wizard's curse and communism as bad because it got in the way of the Romanovs living in big palaces and wearing fancy dresses.

  • The Post (2017), about a wealthy, heroic girlboss newspaper executive who makes the heroic decision to...uhh...not block the publication of a story that would expose the lies of a corrupt president threatening our democracy (take THAT drumpf)

post more.

  • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
    ·
    9 months ago

    It's weird how everyone seems to like this movie even though it is so bad

    • TheLastHero [none/use name]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I like Matt Christman's theory: Forrest was lying folks, he was literally just making shit up on that dumb bench to fuck with people. (this theory will also get people very angry for some reason)

      • VILenin [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Criticizing liberals’ soothing thought-terminating treats is a cardinal sin

      • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
        ·
        9 months ago

        Thought that was Stavs theory.

        Does make everything that happens after he leaves the bench kinda weird though.

        • Vncredleader
          ·
          9 months ago

          Stav was more just confused that he ran across the country without stopping.

          • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
            ·
            9 months ago

            Yeah but he was specifically asking if forest was an unreliable narrator or not, cuz Stav can't buy that a person could run a lot.

            • Vncredleader
              ·
              9 months ago

              He thought that the film must be magic for that to happen. Which ngl I don't disagree with his all or nothing stance with magic in film.

              • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
                ·
                9 months ago

                The funny thing is I think his question was totally reasonable, he just worded it in the dumbest way possible

                • Vncredleader
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  That is Stavi embodied in one sentence

                  • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    Yeah, sometimes he leaves me with a thousand isl... thousand mile stare.

    • sandinista209 [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      90s nostalgia is a powerful thing. The movie should be dunked on based on them creating an awful seafood chain alone.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I mean it can a well made movie even if the message is bad and encased in liberalism. Same with the Will Smith flim mentioned in the original post.

      Though it's been a long time since I watched either, so I can't give an accurate judgement on why these movies are well liked despite the end messages being bad. Maybe people are just trapped in liberalism and therefore relate to it? That's all I've got for now.

      • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        idk i'm not even talking about the message of it, it's just so fucking lazy. 2.5 hours of "member this" and referencing historical events with Forrest inserted on the sideline, with nothing really connecting each dot. Like they didn't even try to come up with a plot or an antagonist or any type of stakes to care about the meandering random unconnected bullshit

        • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
          ·
          9 months ago

          there is absolutely a plot. the emotional core of the movie is Forrest's unconditional, unfaltering love for Jenny in the face of her pain and self destruction. Not that that plot is without its problems, but more than the nostalgia bait, it's what makes the movie watchable.

          • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            Jenny isn't in 90% of the movie, only the opening and ending. She's barely even a character

            • Tunnelvision [they/them]
              ·
              9 months ago

              That’s also not true she is sprinkled in through the movie. That being said she’s basically used as a prop to demonize the entire counter culture of the era and she ends up dying because of it. She’s like the boomer cautionary tale personified.

      • QueerCommie [she/her, fae/faer]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Forest Gump wasn’t the least enjoyable thing to watch. Pursuit of Happiness had way too many brain worms to ignore though.

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
          ·
          9 months ago

          My Jr High principle sent out a newsletter to parents telling them to watch it