The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) has to be up there. Literally glorifies the stock market and presents a finance bro job as the key to happiness. There's a scene near the start where Will Smith is outside the NYSE looking at all the suits going in and out and narrating how he was inspired by how happy everyone was, and how this inspired him to bootlick his way into some internship, the pursuit of which literally requires him to alienate his friends and family and sleep in subway bathrooms with his five-year-old son. Everyone in the movie is a lazy, unscrupulous asshole, except for the rich people, of course, who are portrayed as generous and open-minded for allowing Will Smith in the door after he kisses their asses the whole movie. All of his struggle with homelessness and poverty etc. is portrayed not as injustice but as the ideal scenario, rewarding the hardest, most dedicated worker with a job. It is literally r/upliftingnews: the movie.

  • SteamedHamberder [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    The whole “inner city high school” genre. Dangerous Minds and Lean on Me are the two examples that immediately come to mind (with satire “ High School High” for good measure) but I’m sure there are a few more.

    Bootstrapping porn.

    Edit: “Lean on Me” not “Stand by Me.”

    • WhatAnOddUsername [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Stand by Me

      I was under the impression that that was mostly about the four boys going to see the dead body, with not so much of a focus on high school? Is there something I was missing?