What do you NOT like?

I think that part of my desire to avoid saying that something is "bad" is to avoid playing that game--which of course ties in to my desire to avoid a fixed political POV. How do we judge aesthetic virtues or failings conclusively without falling into this sort of trap? Can we? Should we?

The only things that turn me off automatically are formulaic films--I hate repeating myself in life, and I despise films that are just the mirror of a dozen other films in their genre, whether it be by script, typecasting of an actor/actress or formalistic repetition (to the point of outright plagarism at times).

"i think BAD has become synonomous with politically distasteful films (politically distateful to predominately liberal-humanist critics, that is). Hollywood films (or whatever) are therefore "bad" because they are perceived to serve a reactionary political agenda. "

I don't think that politics plays as big of a part in serious critical discourse anymore, unless your writing Marxist film reviews. Most serious artists & critics realize that "art comes before politics" in the grand scheme of things, and I would say good critics take more objection to films that they find intellectually offensive than morally/politically offensive (although I saw some TV movie critic last week give his top ten list of 2004 films, and actually said that "Team America" was in his top ten least favorite list, with no other explanation than "it offended me". Well, shit, "Birth of a Nation" offended the hell out of me, but I still can appreciate its achievements. And in an age where we have a dire need for satire (and receive a great lack of it in the cinema), "Team America" was a great achievement for 2004.

As far as "The Passion" goes, we've had this debate before--it's just an incredibly poorly directed film. It's just unfortunate that it has the "Jesus Loving-Jew Hating" thing hanging over it, because no one can critique in purely on a formalistic/technical level; it's always "oh, you hate the movie because you hate Jesus/hate Christians/hate the South/etc."

ha--i guess it is similar, but my intitial reason for starting this thread was to see if other film lovers used a distinction between something being just plain bad or just not to their taste. kind of banal really!

it's funny you bring up the notion that a film can be "offensive"--if you take my "bad film" = "bad politics according to the critic" theory loosely enough, i think calling a movie "offensive" surely applies. I am almost impossible to offend, and maybe this is why I find something to like in almost everything i see!

i would love to be able to completely separate the political from the aesthetic, but i dont really believe that is possible. i mean, a formal/technical critique of the Passion is kind of a waste of time isnt it? when you say it is poorly directed i just think you mean the shots don't match or the boom mike is showing or the editing is confusing. what do you mean?

* examples: in music - phasing, 'heartburn' synths, house beat, reverbed piano; in films - lens flares, extreme slow motion, a well thought out plot, kinski-style overacting, sexy naked women.
** more in tactical than in strategic terms (formulaic plotting is fine by me), like a music cue ive heard a million times before, or the good old cat-leaping-out-of-the-cupboard bit.

1. Too pleased with itself, smug, self-satisfied
But
2. Way too predictable and dumb as a box of rocks, stupid but not good stupid! Bad stupid!
3. An apparently great cast that made me think perhaps they weren't so great after all for agreeing to be in this movie
4. I sensed the makers of the film all giving themselves high fives and towel-whipping one another's bottoms (this is kind of point 1) ,it's that self-congratulatory macho crapola that is 'sooo gay' I can't stand (also not 'sooo gay' it's good, but 'sooo gay' it's bad)
5. I realised I'd been ripped off, that I was being talked down to, that as far as the film-maker's were concerned all they needed from me was my money and they didn't care if I was having a good time
6. It then made me realise that I had something else I could be doing, like ironing or laundry- and that I'd much rather be doing that- THE GREATEST SIN OF ANY FILM-MAKER MUST SURELY BE TO MAKE YOU GO DO SOMETHING REALLY MUNDANE RATHER THAN WATCH THEIR MOVIE.

Otherwise I have very broad tastes in movies, I love movies! film! cinema! whatever you call it!

My girlfriend has a theory that the best actress Oscar goes only to beautiful women who ugly themselves up in films (Kidman's big nose in "The Hours", Renee Zellweger's dirty hick in "Cold Mountain", Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball" and Theron in "Monster"). I think she's on to something. Who would be this year's candidate?

A little off-topic, but we had an interesting discussion on the Frameworks listserv last week about symmetry in Stan Brakhage's films. Human perceptions beauty has been found in studies to be simply the degree of symmetry in a person's face. However, when Brakhage uses symmetry in his films, it is very ugly, as he found symmetry to be a frightening cage that confined the abstract image.

I don't like "intense" or suspensful movies (this is obv connected to my dislike of horror films)--my fav in this genre is Jaws, and i literally have a phobia of sharks, and so that movie is more powerful to me since it seems to go beyond my ordinary fears.

i really hate melodramatic acting (shouting, ostentatious emoting)--this can be done well i suppose but it's been very long since I have seen it. i just saw a bootleg of 2046 and my god does he have a great command of actors--when this comes out a lot of idiot critics will call it "distant" i bet.

but even very poorly done lyrical montages set to great music will always be appealing to me. i think this simply means that every movie should be "In the Mood for Love" or "8 1/2"!

the think i hate most of all: when movies import classic texts to lend profundity to their idiotic movies--excessive Shakespeare quoting, etc. Keep your dirty movie away from great writers!

on Anderson: i think the music cues in Rushmore were tremendous. mainly because i hadn't heard most of them before, and they seemed to be of a piece. it's been downhill since.