“If Love is the Answer could you rephrase the Question?” Lily Tomlin made that comment decades ago, but it makes total sense for me today. The question – rephrased, of course -- is what film constitutes my guilty pleasure. The answer, actually, is “Love, Actually.” I...
Directed by: Paul FeigWritten by Kristen Wiig and Annie MumoloStarring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy.Watching the previews for this film for months before it opened, I cringed. Reading the reviews after it opened, I smiled. The final result...
I know how these guilty pleasure posts are supposed to work. I make the argument that no pleasure should be considered guilty, then go on to name a movie that isn’t actually that terrible – and in fact underscores whatever meager badass credentials I have. I’m not...
I like my cheese spicy with extra gunfire, so my choice for Guilty Pleasure would be "Desperado," the 1995 hit with Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. The movie is the middle episode in the "El Mariachi" trilogy, directed by Robert Rodriguez. In the trilogy, a...
Directed by Xavier BeauvoisWritten by Beauvois and Etienne ComarStarring: Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin, Philippe LaudenbachThere is a scene near the end in this movie that brought me to tears, an uncommon event. One of the eight monks living in...
Guilt and Guts When Jeremy asked me to contribute an essay about a guilty pleasure, I was happy to do it, but afterwards, as I began to think about it, I realized I don’t really have any. Guilt, like shame and fear and envy and hate, is a negative, mostly useless...
