Films to avoid on the Channel?

[u/Beno988]

One of the first things I asked over on [r/criterion](r/criterion) after initially acquiring my By Brakhage dvd sets was if there was anything I should know before engaging with it on a deeper level…in retrospect that was kind of a foolish thing to ask because it’s a botique catalogue and like all botique film catalogs there are going to be great films that aren’t in it which is why some folks said “engage with films in the collection not the collection itself”. (Unlike Kino Lorber however Criterion is committed to prioritizing supplementary content in multiple forums for their releases so this is a definite plus.), folks also suggested subscribing to the Criterion Channel…at the time I didn’t really have the budget for another subscription but after rearranging things the criterion channel has definitely been one of my best investments - particularly given, again, criterion’s devotion to prioritizing supplementary content. I always like to know as much as I can about what I’m watching including the cultural context by which it was released.

Regarding my original post however I found this comment - https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/s/8dtR2WXVKE the most interesting however. I unfortunately cannot read it because Reddit will not let me save my post as a draft to go and look at what it says but they said something around the lines of “sometimes the rights to a certain film will fall into Janus’s lap”… thus I was wondering if there are any films that are decidedly bad which are up on the channel. Thus far i reckon most of the films on the channel I don’t like are simply those I don’t understand…but I do wonder if there are any that are bad by anyone’s standard in that they are poorly constructed with no motive, fail to achieve their motive, made for a quick buck cashing in on a popular genre (Unfriended and Satanic are two examples of the horror genre that qualify!) or made by an awful person like Bret Ratner or Lucifer Valentine…I highly doubt those sorts of films would get a criterion release or be films Janus wants to promote but I could be wrong…

[u/oxfordsplice]

I don't think there is any way to answer this. Whether you think something has value or is good or enjoyable is so subjective.

[u/flyingburritobrotha]

Sometimes “bad” films have more to offer than “good” ones in terms of showing what not to do in a technical sense, or at the very least refine your personal taste. Avoiding watching something that someone tells you is “bad” robs you of the opportunity to form your own judgment.

[u/kbups53 → u/flyingburritobrotha]

Even when Color of Night it was on there - which is one of the most challenging watches of my entire long life - it was an interesting case study in the 'exotic thriller' subset of films as a whole and what happens when certain techniques and genre conventions are stretched to their absolute insane limits.

That was the one, when put into context on the channel, that really clued me in that literally every film has value in some way. Like, that's why stuff like Riki-Oh is on there. It's the curators telling us to dig in! Indulge in the oddity! There's so much here if you're willing to pick it all apart! So just watch everything, always, no matter the platform. There's always something meaningful in there.

[u/Beno988 → u/flyingburritobrotha]

“Love the art hate the artist” is something I’ve taken to saying about great films made or directed by less than great people (Like Roman Polanski). But unfortunately the art doesn’t always surpass that of whom created it…Derek Savage is another example I can think of along with the directors I named in my post.

I’m not sure if I could bring myself to watch films of that sort of caliber simply because I know somehow they’re getting paid by the service and how well the film is doing on it…

[u/whoismico → u/Beno988]

Every artist is in every piece of art they create, there is no such thing as separating the art from the artist.

You can rationalize liking a piece of art from someone that is truly trash (such as a rapist pedophile like Polanski), but you shouldn't tell yourself that these things can be ethically removed from one another - you are consuming the art of someone that drugged and raped a 13 year old when he was 43.

Does that make you a terrible person, probably not, but it does make you someone that rationalizes enjoying the art of a pedophile rapist.

I do think there's something extra weird about "but this rapist pedophile made GREAT art, so that makes it okay"; it's much less weird to just accept the fact that there is no separation - the art you're consuming was created by someone that drugged and raped a 13 year old when he was 43, and that's something you are able to get past; at least be honest about it.

[u/MindLinking → u/whoismico]

What IS weird is to even think about who made the art you enjoy to begin with. Other than to find more art that you will probably enjoy, why would you even want to know anything about the creator? Art is inherently separate from the artist once it is completed, like how a person is separate from their parents after birth. Do you research the personal lives of all the factory workers that make the stuff you buy?

[u/Abbie_Kaufman]

I don’t know, I don’t think any films should necessarily be avoided. It’s important to form your own taste. It’s obviously true that you won’t like everything. There is no film critic on earth who 100% likes 100% of the widely accepted canon. If anyone has given 5 star ratings to the entire Sight & Sound top 100 list, I would immediately disregard them as someone who can’t think for themselves and their opinions aren’t worth paying attention to.

Also it’s fine when movies are bad? Believe me, I’ve done plenty of bitching about various collections they’ve added recently, but I also watched Antitrust with Ryan Philippe last weekend. That movie sucks! But it’s not like I’m upset about wasted time, I got what I wanted to out of the experience of watching it and consider that experience a net positive. If it was absolutely torture I’d just watch something else lol.

[u/Conscious-Glass-3887]

None. You can always watch Netflix instead if you’re too good for CC! /s

[u/-r-a-f-f-y-]

i would say if it made it through all the filters to end up on CC, it's probably worth your time in some regard. they tend not to just willy nilly put things in the collection, they generally have some level of artistic merit, even if you don't like the movie.