Robb. Knight.

I have bad movie opinions. I love movies I know are bad in the "la-de-dah I studied cinema at whatever university" way. I will avoid movies that win oscars because more often than not it means they'll be boring as fuck. If it won darling-of-the-weekend award at some film festival, not a chance. I'd rather watch Tokyo Drift a hundred times than spend three hours of my life watching Oppenheimer.

There are exceptions to this. Spotlight is fantastic. Gladiator is great. Parasite is amazing. This is a complete list of the best picture movies I actually like. I'm not against Oscar-winning movies per se, but a lot of them are just really boring. They smack you in the face with "we've made this with one purpose: to win an oscar". Cinematic pornography.

I don't say this to change anyone's mind or to suggest movies in general are bad. I love movies. It's great that people enjoy different things. There's so much stuff out there that there's something everyone can get lost in, get obsessed with, or start a podcast about.

There is, however, another best picture movie I've seen that was the trigger for this blog post. A few days ago I was reminded by Keenan that I once watched and rated Schindler’s List on Letterboxd. I gave it one star (this was before I stopped doing ratings). My review in full is as follows:

I’m amazed this is held in as high regard as it is. It’s well shot but the story is just boring and the first two hours are mostly pointless.

Firstly, if you want to watch a movie about the Holocaust I would suggest The Pianist, which is excellent. Schindler’s List is considered a classic movie. It's probably a lot of peoples favourite movie. The topic is fascinating and truly awful. My Jewish great-great grandparents fled Germany during the war to avoid being sent to a concentration camp. Visiting Auschwitz is something everyone should do if you can to truly understand the horrors of what happened.

But none of that stops this movie, for me, being utterly and completely boring. So boring I nearly gave up halfway through; my wife (who also gave it one star by the way) can't stand to leave something unfinished so we slogged through it.

Someone who has since deleted their comments on Letterboxd called me some rather unpleasant names because of this review as if my one star review might cause some upset to Steven Spielberg and the rest of the cast (I think they'll be fine), or worse suggesting I was ignorant of the real-life events of the movie. I don't give it a pass just because of the subject matter. Boring, one star for you.

I also happen to think Fast and Furious (2009) is one of the best movies ever made and I deeply disliked The Nightmare Before Christmas. So don't listen to me. Go enjoy what you enjoy.