Well hello again,
Dana, your bringing up the word hate as a potentially problematic word for film criticism aligns fortuitously with the current discourse over 10-worst lists. Such lists have been a part of mainstream film criticism since time immemorial. Siskel and Ebert used to devote a whole episode to their stinkers of the year. (I still remember their absolute evisceration of David Lynch’s Dune.) The 10-worst list could also be used creatively; Peter Travers of Rolling Stone once named Titanic both the best film of 1997 and the worst film of 1997, which probably reflected many people’s opinions of Titanic at the time. (For the record, I think Titanic is one of the greatest movies ever made.)
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