{"id":218,"date":"2021-07-23T08:05:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T16:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.makemydayusa.glamazon.net\/?p=218"},"modified":"2021-07-23T08:05:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T16:05:43","slug":"guilty-pleasures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/guilty-pleasures\/","title":{"rendered":"“Guilty” Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A \u201cguilty pleasure\u201d is delight taken in something \u201cbad.\u201d In movies a guilty pleasure is either a film so bad that it\u2019s entertaining (like an Ed Wood movie), or an exploitation film. The latter includes women-in-prison, \u201cBlacksploitation,\u201d naughty nurses (or nuns) and \u201csplatter\u201d movies. They are usually bereft of lofty aspirations. Social convention dictates you\u2019re supposed<\/em> to be embarrassed if you enjoy them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Yorker<\/em>‘s Jennifer Szalai lambasted the practice of concurrently praising and damning something as a guilty pleasure. I have used the phrase myself, but mostly as a means of contextualizing a creative work. It\u2019s a bit conceited to enjoy something and then criticize yourself for it. It\u2019s like saying, \u201cI really enjoy this movie but I know I shouldn\u2019t.\u201d It smacks of faux<\/em> moral superiority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask yourself, \u201cWhy<\/em> shouldn\u2019t I enjoy this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some filmmakers are hacks who exploit sex or violence to attract an audience because that\u2019s all they have to offer. Others would like to go deeper but either don\u2019t know how to or think they can\u2019t afford<\/em> to deliver depth. And some filmmakers enjoy producing crowd pleasers because they themselves are pleased by those movies. Good for them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cB\u201d in B-movie actually stands for \u201cbudget\u201d not \u201cbad.\u201d Breaking out of the \u201cB\u201d movie realm is mostly too expensive. Success means making the most of what you have and delivering enough pure entertainment to be able to finance your next picture. There\u2019s no shame in that. So why should anyone feel guilt for enjoying an entertaining if not quite edifying motion picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer: they shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I adore B films especially if some care is put into them. The legendary Roger Corman fostered a long string of award-winning filmmakers. They all proved their ability with B-movies. Most of them went on to win major awards, and their Corman films show that promise. A small budget doesn\u2019t necessarily mean \u201cBad.\u201d And to be honest, I also enjoy well-made, fun, unapologetic sleazefests like Zombie Strippers<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not so generous to A-List films with the budget to be good yet fail to deliver. \u201cDisaster\u201d films\u2014what an ironic name for that genre\u2014are a great example. Many aspire to be lofty but fall short. The Towering Inferno<\/em> has overblown salaries and egos competing for screen time, yet the real stars are the stunts and special effects. Now there\u2019s<\/em> some well-placed guilt if ever any was deserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The takeaway here is that guilt and pleasure should rarely be associated. So go ahead and plug in Showgirls<\/em> or Piranha 3DD<\/em> or Zombie Strippers<\/em> or any 1970-80s exploitation flick. I won\u2019t tell on you if you like it. My video library has plenty of them and I don\u2019t feel bad about it at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. Of the Corman directors\u2019 exploitation films, I\u2019d recommend The Lady in Red<\/em>, Boxcar Bertha<\/em>, Jackson County Jail<\/em>, Caged Heat<\/em>, and Streets<\/em> as examples where exploitation reached to become More while being made on \u201cB\u201d budgets and schedules. Bravo, gentlemen and lady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A \u201cguilty pleasure\u201d is delight taken in something \u201cbad.\u201d In movies a guilty pleasure is either a film so bad that it\u2019s entertaining (like an Ed Wood movie), or an exploitation film. The latter includes women-in-prison, \u201cBlacksploitation,\u201d naughty nurses (or nuns) and \u201csplatter\u201d movies. They are usually bereft of lofty aspirations. Social convention dictates you\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mainline-journa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}