By Afroditi A. Karagianni,
What a joy it is to witness the fantastic world of cinema. Movies have always possessed the incredible ability to narrate captivating stories, challenge our opinions, transform our ways of thinking, and even take us to places we never thought we would find ourselves in. This inescapable destination is normally glamorous, magical, and thrilling, but what happens when we end up in a strange, hostile, and uninviting land?
Usually, one does not deliberately select a “bad” film to watch. Nonetheless, the horrendous ratings some movies have gotten over the years compelled my friends and me to watch three of them and understand why they are generally regarded as nasty, boring, and distasteful. As is natural, I, then, decided to document my experience while watching, and my thoughts on these pieces. Mind you, some people may find these movies excellent, worth watching, and intriguing. I happen not to be one of those people.
The movies I am about to discuss differ when it comes to their scenario, settings, and directions. One factor remains common though, and that is no other than their questionable quality (and me having second thoughts while watching them).
Play or Die
Starting off strong with 2019’s Play or Die, directed by Jaques Kluger, a movie that revolves around Lucas and Chloe, an on-again, off-again romantic couple, who also happen to be hardcore gamers. About five minutes in, we learn that our pair has recently come across an online, exclusive escape game called Paranoia, and plans on solving its first riddle to officiate their participation in it. After succeeding, they decide to engage in the game’s ultimate challenge, so that they can win the generous money prize offered. However, things take an unexpected turn when they are forced to abandon the security of their computer screens and play the game in an old mental hospital, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by others, quite eccentric and peculiar (if not downright weird) players. As they cut their last bonds with safety, no one can be truly certain as to how the game will end.
If you ask me, this horror-mystery movie contains all the elements a piece of the genre typically possesses. Creepy outdoor settings, an unsettling premise (well its very name is Play or Die so what does one really expect), the classic sudden sound effects, and the gory, bloody, and disturbing scenes every horror film that respects itself usually possesses. What this particular movie fails to do though, is combine all these components with a more compelling scenario and a cast that can bring their characters to life successfully. It is a film full of plot holes, unnecessary scenes, dialogue cliches, and plot twists that scare you with their unimaginativeness, bad execution, and predictability. I am no expert, but my limited knowledge on the matter tells me that this is not the “scare” horror movies traditionally strive to offer. It is a film that takes itself far too seriously and presents multiple insignificant details and distressing scenes to make up for the fact that its story is full of errors and –let’s face it– things that make absolutely zero sense. In truth, it left me bored and uninterested. Trust me, I won’t be rewatching this one, unless somebody wants to pay me generously to do so (without having to take part in a life-threatening game, that is).
He’s all that
Brought to you in 2021 by Mark Waters, this movie tells the story of Padget Sawyer, a high school student/popular girl/teen influencer who gets cheated on by her boyfriend. Visibly shaken after losing her partner, dignity, and 200,000 followers, Padget seeks revenge against her ex and decides to participate in a bet, which involves her giving a makeover to a classmate, called Cameron. This young man is depicted as a weird, antisocial, and rebellious teen, who, upon first glance, makes Riverdale’s Jughead Jones, a guy that is “weird, a weirdo, who does not fit in and does not want to fit in”, spring to mind, if you were lucky enough to witness this Netflix-made, unparalleled masterpiece (which could also make the cut for today’s list if it were a film and not a painfully voluminous series I could not bring my –14-year-old– self to continue past 3 seasons). As such, Padget transforming Cameron into the school’s prom king is presented as this killer idea, that will gain our influencer her self-worth, status, and social media fans back. Gradually, the two start falling for one another and the audience gets to discover how their relationship grows, whether they end up together, and –most importantly– if Padget managed to regain the trust of both her sponsors and fan base.
Once again, Netflix proved that the ability to depict realistic teen characters escapes most of its productions. More specifically, the teenagers in He’s All That are nothing more than caricatures of real-world ones since the former usually react in an exaggerated fashion, express themselves as if they jumped out of a social media comment section, and lack any actual personality and depth. Even the characters constructed to be “different” and “edgy” like Cameron, ultimately feel forced and unrealistic. In other words, they make viewers extremely uncomfortable when they talk about their unique music taste, black, unhinged humor, and bleak view of the world. In addition, according to the audience, the acting in this film is (mainly) the equivalent of that in a badly executed school play, which is definitely not a compliment, and I found totally agreeable. Moreover, the piece contains various dance scenes and singing sequences that we could –by no means– take seriously, even if we tried hard to. Finally, I feel that it is vital for today’s films to become more original and start inspiring young people to unapologetically be themselves. It is safe to say that this film is nothing new (it being the remake of She’s All That), let alone a piece that empowers younglings.
The Kissing Booth
This list would not be complete, if 2018’s The Kissing Booth was not in it. Directed by Vince Marcello, the film focuses on the life of Elle Evans, a high school student who has not had her first kiss yet. One day, Elle and her best friend, Lee, take a “hit two birds with the same stone” kind of approach and organize a Kissing Booth, which will both pose as a fundraiser and, perhaps, an adequate first kissing experience for Elle. While working in the Booth, she kisses the school’s most desirable and popular boy, who also happens to be her best friend’s brother and her secret crush. What follows is a hectic journey, where we witness how Elle’s relationship with each brother alters, the way these events shape her character, the reactions of the protagonists, and one-toο-many fight scenes between high schoolers.
The Kissing Booth is one for the books. Other than its unoriginal basis, it struggles to offer pretty much anything else. Noah is an abusive, violent, cold, and manipulative character, a person who gets exceedingly angry for no reason, thinks of girls as his conquests, refuses to allow them any freedom whatsoever, and believes that his speedy motorcycle is enough to make up for his unacceptable behavior. Somewhere along the ride though, we find that he got into Harvard, which is probably (and shockingly) the most plausible incident taking place in this story. Moving on, Lee is irritating, needy, controlling, stubborn, and visibly jealous of his brother, to the extent that he interferes in the latter’s relationships to sabotage them, even if that means sacrificing his best friend’s happiness to achieve his dubious goal. Speaking of, Elle is not an impressively constructed character herself. She is the epitome of the quirky, “different”, unique girl who believes she can effortlessly change the abusive male character, the one that certified therapists could not aid, with her everlasting and devotional love. And that, sadly, is all she really adds to the story. Personally, I feel that characters like Elle and Noah are promoting extremely unhealthy and unrealistic relationship dynamics.
They directly tell us that guys who treat women like their toys can profoundly change and magically transform into the polar opposite of what they are, which could not be further from the truth. Abusive people cannot shift their behavior this easily, and unless they somehow do so, they pose a real threat to the people around them, even to their romantic partners. The film even goes as far as presenting these dangerous men as misunderstood, mysterious, and charming characters with depth and “demons” they need to face. Honestly, the only demon I faced while watching was the one telling me to close the TV, and it almost won. The Kissing Booth was unserious, unoriginal, melodramatic, problematic, and full of inaccurate depictions of teenagers’ lives. It promoted unhealthy stereotypes, made people uncomfortable, and even romanticized abusive relationships. Undoubtedly, if time travel were possible, I would give it a fair try and go back in time to get these valuable 105 minutes of my time back.
Surely, “high-quality” cinema is unmatched, and the people who enjoy watching films have a lot to gain by viewing the movies that help them take form. Nevertheless, occasionally, one can watch a badly rated movie, just for the thrill of it. Often, it can be extremely entertaining, especially if you get all your friends to watch it with you. And who knows your friend group might get some pretty funny inside jokes out of it, and those are always worth the sacrifice.
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