The Best Streaming Service Is Going To Highlight The 'Worst' Movies
There is, a critic will argue, a great deal of value in finding and discussing the worst films of the year. All the films released in a given epoch are a reflection of the trends and ideas that produced them, and scoring the bottom of the barrel for the worst filmmaking, the worst ideas, and the most misguided thinking will provide a valuable analysis of where we are as a society. Worst-of lists are important and vital and should be written with enthusiasm. They also let critics blow off steam a little bit; we don't have the luxury to skip bad movies or avoid talking about the ones we hate. It's our job.
The Golden Raspberries, or the Razzies for short, however, lost sight of that value a while back. The annual Razzies announcement is usually a snarky affair that only serves to pick on the year's least popular blockbusters, and have no interest in analysis or even finding what films may be truly the worst. 2023 Razzie nominee "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" was a disappointing and mediocre blockbuster, but it was by no means one of the worst films of the year. It was merely something that a mass audience had heard of and didn't much care for. The Razzies swiped at it as low-hanging fruit. At least nominees "The Expend4bles" and "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" were indeed outwardly awful.
The Razzies are roundly criticized on the regular. Many cineastes see the awards as mean-spirited. The Razzies don't offer an analysis of bad cinema. They just want to point to certain movies and hold their noses.
To refute the Razzies, the Criterion Channel — one of the best of all streaming services — just released a special playlist highlighting which Razzie-nominated films they'll feature starting on March 1, 2024.
Razzie-nominated Criterion films
The Criterion Collection is generally respected among film lovers, as their library of films is very carefully curated. When a film is added to the Criterion library, it's a reason to sit up and take notice. Some notable classics feel like they belong — no one will argue with the inclusion of "The Rules of the Game" or "Bicycle Thieves" — but when they come out with a more obscure film like "Kill!" or "Touki Bouki," one might want to pay attention.
The Criterion Channel frequently uses the company's imprimatur to call attention to neglected classics. The Channel recently celebrated erotic thrillers of the 1990s, encouraging viewers to see the lascivious and clunky cinematic trend as worthy of analysis.
As it so happens, the Criterion Channel has had a collection of Razzie-nominated films in their library for years, encouraging the re-litigation of some famed turkeys. The new playlist of Razzie-nominated films includes:
- William Friedkin's "Cruising" (1980)
- Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" (1980)
- Robert Greenwald's "Xanadu" (1980)
- Rainer Wener Fassbinder's "Querelle" (1982)
- Prince's "Under the Cherry Moon" (1986)
- Elaine May's "Ishtar" (1987)
- Roger Donaldson's "Cocktail" (1988)
- Paul Verhoeven's "Showgirls" (1995)
- David Hogan's "Barb Wire" (1996)
- Daniel Myrick's and Eduardo Sánchez's "The Blair Witch Project" (1999)
- Tom Green's "Freddy Got Fingered" (2001)
- Guy Ritchie's "Swept Away" (2002)
- Martin Brest's "Gigli" (2003)
- Neil LaBute's "The Wicker Man" (2006)
Some of these films remain notorious to this day, but others don't seem like they should have been Razzie-nominated. What is "Querelle" doing on there? Or "The Blair Witch Project," one of the scariest and most successful movies of 1999? The Criterion Channel is inviting you to analyze these off-kilter or bizarre movies and find what value they may have.
Finding value in the notorious
Some of the above films required time to marinate in the public consciousness before one could see what was happening. For Green's "Freddy Got Fingered," for instance, one had to be outside the tired tropes of late-'90s gross-out comedies to see that the film was a deliberately repellant satire of what Hollywood was willing to sell as a comedy. It's almost anti-cinema, and that's worth a view. Many have come to the rescue of "Heaven's Gate" and "Ishtar" as ambitious films that need to be cut free from their box office reputations. "Barb Wire" is a lascivious '90s sci-fi riff on "Casablanca," and that's worth something.
Back in 1980, a publicist named John J.B. Wilson paid a dollar to see a double feature of Robert Greenwald's musical disaster "Xanadu" and Nancy Walker's Village People vehicle "Can't Stop the Music." On the drive home, Wilson, disgusted by the glitz he had just seen, thought that the world was crying out for an awards show that recognized the worst films of the year. The anti-Oscars, one might say. On Oscar Night in 1981, Wilson staged a mock ceremony in his home for the benefit of only 30 or so party guests. He declared "Can't Stop the Music" to be the worst film of the year and awarded it the Golden Raspberry. A tradition was born.
While Wilson and his buddies had fun, there didn't seem to be critics in the room to debate — or defend — his choices. If there had been, maybe the Razzies would have started in a more thoughtful, analytical place.
As it stands, the Razzies have no thought to them at all. Thank you to the Criterion Channel for allowing audiences to re-think some stinkers.