San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
What movies are your guilty pleasures?
Hi, dear Mick LaSalle: Thank you so much for recommending “The Fury of a Patient Man.” We watched it last night and found it pretty powerful! I hope your recommendations for streaming become a regular thing as long as we’re all staying at home.
Elaine Johnson, Greenbrae
Hi, dear Elaine Johnson: That’s a Spanish movie that won all kinds of awards, and yet almost nobody here knows about it. And there are plenty more movies like that. I’ll definitely be recommending them for as long as we’re staying inside.
This situation makes me remember when I was a teenager and would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to watch a movie on “The Late, Late Show.” I’d watch it by myself, but I’d sometimes feel, through the stillness, that others were watching it, too. This shelterinplace thing makes me feel something similar — that we’re all doing something in isolation, but that there’s a quality of connection about it.
Have you had occasion to call customer service or technical support these days? They’re all at home, and they’re all incredibly friendly. Everybody just seems so opened up, wanting to connect, in a way that should be characteristic of normal life, but isn’t normal at all. I hope we can keep some of it when social life returns.
Dear Mick: I took your advice and watched “Coffee & Kareem.” For the life of me I cannot believe you gave this movie a relatively positive review! Your review was seriously misguided, but you are still in “the black.” You gave me “Blue Is the Warmest Color” (three hours) and “Coffee & Kareem” (two hours). Hence the one hour of credit you have remaining.
Mark Ibanez, Napa
Dear Mark: This is reasonable. But, if you didn’t like “Coffee & Kareem,” why did you watch the whole thing? Did you really think it was going to get better? Did you think, based on my previous recommendation, that all the people in the movie were suddenly going to start speaking French and become lesbians?
I could see you blaming me for the whole experience had you gone to the theater, because then you would’ve had to drive there and drive back, so you’d have lost time that way. But you were watching Netflix. You just had to press Esc, as in “escape.”
So, how about this? I’ll accept responsibility for the first half hour. My credit should go back up to 2½ hours. Two hours and 15 minutes at the worst.
Dear Movie Maven Mick: In the 1980s, Siskel and Ebert had a movie category they called “guilty pleasures.” How would you define that term, and do you have any?
Dave Wilcox, Walnut Creek Dear Movie Maven Dave: Those are movies that you think are bad, but you like them anyway. I don’t have guilty pleasures, for two reasons:
First, I’m just grateful for everything I like. I don’t feel I have to pretend to be above something that gives me pleasure. If I like it, I respect the fact that I like it, and I respect the people who were nice enough to make it.
Second — and this might be a quirk of personality — everything I like I genuinely think is good. The movie might be lowbrow or lowdown or obvious, but I can’t simultaneously like something and think it’s lousy.
In the end, “guilty pleasure” just means that you like something that other people say is no good. But who cares what other people say? You might be curious about what other people say. I’m curious, too. Curiosity is good. But ultimately, you like what you like. And if you like the Hong Kong action thriller “Naked Killer,” or every single action movie Liam Neeson makes, just own it.
Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.