Good trash VS Bad trash

There’s a fine line between good trash and just plain bad trash. It’s up to one’s opinion if something’s bad or good, but in some cases all people can agree that something’s clearly good trash or bad trash. Of course, there’s always someone who enjoys and likes a movie others hate with a burning passion and that's totally fine. Everyone should be free to like and dislike things.

But anyways - here are some thoughts of mine about good trash and bad trash.

Good Trash

For example, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room is considered “good trash” by a large audience. To this day, people watch it for the laughs; it’s perfect to watch with your friends, maybe a bit drunk to get those extra chuckles. It has become a classic for its production value, weird story and absolutely terrible dialogue and acting. But for those exact reasons it became so famous that it’s still quoted and laughed at - it’s so bad that it’s good. 

I think I’ve watched The Room a couple of times and I cannot lie that I haven’t enjoyed it as well. It is a bad, bad movie. But the so-called storytelling and dialogue of it makes me crack and I laugh at the memes. It feels like something out of this world, like aliens trying to act like humans and that's what it makes it funny. So the movie is a good example of a successful good bad movie.

Here lies the heart of good trash: it's supposed to be entertaining and/or funny. Like reality TV, good trash keeps you engaged even if you acknowledge that the thing is badly made or just simply stupid. Good trash makes you laugh and leaves you wanting you more. It's not always the producers intention to make trash (maybe in reality TV it is, though) - usually the directors and producers are serious about their project and want people to be amazed by it. Of course it's not fun if you made something seriously and people end up just laughing at it. But this can add another layer of laughs to the audience with movies and TV series: when something is made with serious intentions but ends up being bad, it's funny.

It's hard to predict how those serious intentions will end up, and sometimes things end up being funny only by accident. I also think that the audience can smell the forced stupidity and it doesn't make people laugh (parody movies could be counted in those), so the accidental trash can be funnier. Seeing funny things in unexpected ways in unexpected places can make people laugh and make a movie or TV series enjoyable.  

Bad Trash

Some b-movies can fall into a good trash box as well, but in most cases they’re just plain bad: they’re so bad that it isn’t funny anymore. They’re so bad that they don’t keep your interest and make you wanna cry and scream and bang your head on the wall out of all things. They might be tolerable if you try to make them funny by joking around with your friends. Some alcohol can help a bit, too. But sometimes even all that doesn’t save a movie from its badness.

Unfortunately it isn’t always the b-movies that are so bad that they hurt - Hollywood produces so many movies so it goes without saying that there are rotten ones in the patch. The most famous examples of bad trash movies that come into my little mind are The Last Airbender, the Twilight saga and Netflix’s Death Note live action movie. Yes, I've watched all of them by my own will.

Especially The Last Airbender has left the ATLA fans outraged and I’m not surprised why it got an award for the Worst Picture. I don’t remember much about it anymore though, other than it was bad and I couldn’t focus on it. It didn’t keep my interest up. It didn’t make me laugh for its badness, either. It was bland and therefore: bad.

Death Note on the other hand… It was super bad. I don’t usually need to pause a movie because it’s bad, but with this one, at the 20 minute mark I needed to pause it and think of my life choices for a good minute. My brain hurt from watching it. It wasn’t funny. It tried to look cool and edgy, but it wasn’t. My former knowledge of the source material may have been on the way of “enjoying” this movie: knowing that this live action killed every interesting aspect of the plot and characters of the original comic had. But even if I didn’t know anything about the Death Note franchise before watching this abomination, I think my mind wouldn’t think any better of this movie. It’s bad trash. I even had to watch it twice: first I watched it alone for "fun" and then my friend wanted to watch it with me. Both times it hurt. So, if someone ever wants to torture me, just tie me up in a chair and play this movie right before my eyes.

Most of these so-bad-it-hurts -movies try to be something great but end up being just "meh", which isn't the desired reaction in any case after experiencing any kind of art or media. The acting might be mediocre or slightly bad, but not so bad that it would be funny. The direction and editing might be odd and weird but it’s not always necessarily so bad that it makes you chuckle. These kinds of movies just leave you with a feeling wondering how this film was ever made into the point of production.

Conclusion (?)

After these thoughts I still do think that it is more up to the viewer what is actually good trash and bad trash.  Some good trash films try to take themselves seriously but end up being funny and you might even want to watch them again, whereas some bad trash films take themselves so seriously that it's impossible to laugh or even enjoy them in the first place. Like with any other media, you need to experience them yourself to actually say if something is good trash or bad trash. Even the situation itself where you're watching or experiencing the media can influence your opinion: some movies might be good trash with friends while the same movie might end up feeling like bad trash in some other company. It's only up to you if you wanna waste your time on looking for good trash from the huge pile of unlabeled trash or do you wanna use your time on actually good films.

Like, of course I'd watch The Grand Budapest Hotel again over The Room to have a fun or otherwise fulfilling movie experience. But sometimes, it's just fun to laugh at simple stupid stuff with friend with a couple of drinks.

This is me talking about trash.