Ben Shapiro, Movie Critic?

I occasionally listen to Ben Shapiro’s podcast, which I find–in about equal parts–annoying as hell, very much on-point, and generally literate.  (The final point distinguishes him from Dave Rubin, whose heart might be in the right place, but who regularly exposes himself as largely unserious and quite ignorant.  The last time I noticed that was a few weeks ago, when I listened to his podcast (something I generally do only if he features a guest I’m interested in hearing from). In the context of the conversation, the guest invoked a clip of “Do You Hear the People Sing”  from Les Miserables, and it was duly played on the podcast:

The guest made a point.  “Yes, yes,” said Dave–a bit impatiently it seemed–“I heard the Russian music.”)

Glory be.  Or perhaps I should say, “Sacre Bleu!” (It feels like I certainly shouldn’t shout, боже мой!  Not in this case, at least.)

Or even the nice guys on the Three Martini Lunch podcast, which I listen to more often. They’re pretty straight-shooters politically, but they’re not immune from cultural idiocy either.  Today, one of them (Greg or Jim, I can’t tell them apart), said that “Jaguar” was the car associated with James Bond.

No.

While there are Jaguars in some of the Bond movies, Bond drove an Aston Martin DB5.  I know that, and I’m not even a car person:

Sheesh.

I thought to myself: Maybe it’s just that I’m a frumpy old lady, and it’s a generational thing.  So I looked up the ages of the principal characters.  Dave Rubin: 48.  Jim Geraghty: 49.  Greg Corombos: 49.  All three are 21-22 years younger than I am.

So then, I looked up Ben.  Ben Shapiro: 40.  A full three decades younger than I am.

So, whatever the problem is, it’s apparently not age-related.

Good to know.

Shapiro’s post today was titled: “Ben Shapiro’s Most OVERRATED Films.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I mean, what if he reached far back into the past, in an apparent grievance with the Greatest Generation and early Boomer universe, and excoriated my favorites?  Casablanca?  It’s a Wonderful Life?  You Can’t Take it With You? The Music Man?

Fortunately, Ben did no such thing.

Now, after the first four on his list, I kind of lost the plot, as there were some movies I’d never heard of, and a lot of movies I’d never seen.  But the first four movies, all of which I’d seen in their entirety, or at least given the old college try were: The Shape of Water (2017), Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009), and The English Patient (1996); and Ben’s comments about them were spot on.

Movies almost exclusively about narcissistic, self-centered, horrible people. Movies mindlessly “anti” those they disagreed with. Sometimes beautifully filmed, but largely morally bankrupt.  If you’re going to go morally bankrupt on me, I’d appreciate a bit of humor, and a couple of sweet subplots (see: Love Actually), to make the whole thing somewhat palatable, but the movies in Ben’s “top four” exhibit none of those redeeming qualities, and Ben noticed that.

This got me thinking about my favorite movie reviewers over the years, and how I generally dismiss the critics, because they usually “go for” the sorts of movies Ben and I apparently despise.

I used to love the movie reviews of a woman named Joan Ellis, who wrote for a time for the “Nebadoon Syndicate,” and later–I think–under her own name on her own site.  I think she died several years ago, and I can’t turn up any of her reviews anymore, either under her name, or under the “Nebadoon” moniker.  But they were spectacular.  Her review of the 1995 remake of The Scarlet Letter (the Demi Moore version) was one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.  And I’ve often quoted the last line to her movie review of Babe (the pig not the baseball player):

I don’t think I want to know anyone who doesn’t like it.

Amen, dear lady.  Rest in peace.  Ben and I have, apparently, got this.