September 2025: Favourite Guilty Pleasure Movie

Trash Humpers (2009) | directed by Harmony Korine | reviewed by Lexi Proulx

Oh boy, watching senior citizens get it on with trash cans is sure interesting sometimes. Trash Humpers (2009) doesn’t consist of a plot, but gee golly it’s sure an exquisite piece of art. Some people might just see the trash as unappealing, but when you get old, you see the beauty in all things. Harmony Korine enjoys shocking the audience with the absurdity of geriatric people and let’s just say their uncommon love for trash. I had so much fun watching this with friends, especially laughing at the old man making funny sounds on top of a trash can, as he exclaims “hoppy, hoppy, hoppy.” It seems very apparent that he is passionate and connecting with the rubbish. It’s an unconventional movie, but rewards those who can get down with the trash.

Hackers (1995) | directed by Ian Softly | reviewed by Maya Wristen

Hackers (1995). So stupid. So awesome. From the instant the New York skyline transformed into a mid-90s circuit board CGI-fest, complete with a bumping synthy electronica score, I knew exactly what kind of movie it was going to be. Post-pubescent gender ambiguous teenage hackers rollerblade through the grimy streets of New York, decked out in the gaudiest, campiest leather/camo/spandex getups the turn of the century had to offer. Plot is irrelevant. Vibes are everything. Our protagonists partake in “hacking” duels, likened—in montage form—to fencing, boxing, and all out war. Angelina Jolie had a sex dream about her love interest (pouty protagonist hacker-ingenue Dade) crossdressing in hot red latex. Matthew Lillard. I mean, what else could one ask for?

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) | directed by Renny Harlin | reviewed by Jason Lepine

If a guilty pleasure film is defined as a film that you enjoy, but is not typically held in high regard, then my film world is overwhelmingly guilty! I have a near infinite list of terrible movies that I absolutely adore watching. Anytime a new, artistic, and celebrated film comes out, I am filled with internal angst to not spend my two hours of free time watching a trashy favorite instead. How bad of a film can you admit to loving without feeling dirty or ashamed of yourself? Narrowing it down to one, surely an impossible task, but for myself, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (Harlin, 1990) is the ultimate guilty pleasure. An absolute blast of late 80’s and early 90’s excess. Loud and intentionally offensive with Andrew Dice Clay at his most politically incorrect. A sea of long forgotten celebrities including Pricilla Presley, Wayne Newton, Morris Day, Tone Loc, Robert Englund, Lauren Holly, Gilbert Gottfried, and Vince Neil. This was one of Renny Harlin’s earliest films and preceded his emergence as a 90’s action icon with Die Hard 2 (1990), Cliffhanger (1993), Cutthroat Island (1995), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), and Deep Blue Sea (1999) (if you know 90’s action films, then I don’t need to explain why that list is so impressive). A film with bright colors, harsh over-produced sound effects, absolutely non-sensical continuity issues, and every action cliché you can think of, the bomb in the microwave timer that ticks with otherworldly slowness while the (anti)heroes escape being a standout. Andrew Dice Clay breaks the 4th wall every chance he gets, one of his first lines as proceeds to give a girl his “555” number which he is accused of faking because “they only use that in the movies” is “No shit honey. What do you think this is? Real Life?”. The instant tone of the film insists you leave your brain at the door. The film itself is a guilty pleasure within a guilty pleasure. It is never meant to be serious; it is poking fun at all the things it at first appears to glorify. Like the “Diceman” himself, the film is meant to be “unbelievable!”.

Bros (2022) | directed by Nicholas Stoller | reviewed by Aidan Beatty

When I think of guilty pleasures, my mind always goes to one film that manages to keep getting back into my mind and has honestly changed a portion of my viewpoint on love. That would be the 2022 Romantic comedy film: Bros. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, this film was promoted as the first big openly gay romantic comedy. Bros is very bold with its messages and core themes. It’s been such a comfort film for me since its release and I don’t talk about it that much. The main character can sometimes be annoying, the runtime is way too long and the humor can be hit or miss. The real drive for me is the realism between the emotional difficulties within its characters. It can be oddly relatable at times. There’s one line in the film that I think about a lot, “if for some reason, underneath all that strength and confidence, you still don't trust that you are lovable enough, I'm living proof....that you're wrong.” All of us are loveable whether we believe it or not. Loving ourselves is the biggest challenge, yet once we overcome it, we can open ourselves up to a world of being loved, and it is worth it.

High School Musical 2 (2007) | directed by Kenny Ortega | reviewed by Nina Patafi

Let us step back almost two decades to the release dates of Disney Channel’s High School Musical movie series, but most significantly, High School Musical 2. This is the only film in the trio that barely takes place in a high school, following the cast as they work at a golf resort during their summer break. Ignoring the fact that the more accurate title would thus be High School Musical 1.5, or Golf Resort Musical, this second installment features most of the series' best songs. Troy Bolton's (Zac Efron) improvised choreography in “Bet On It” is captivating: dramatically clutching sandtrap grains in his fists and staring at his hauntingly artificial reflection during a musical identity crisis. Who could forget the homoromantic undertones of “I Don’t Dance,” wherein an arguably queer-coded Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel) convinces Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu) that they both contain multitudes, capable of dancing and playing baseball. The series antagonist Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) is at her best in this movie, starring in the unforgettable “Fabulous” and a stolen reprisal version of “You Are The Music In Me” that forces Zac Efron into a painfully high key. Sorry Gabriella-heads, this wasn't her movie. A brief warning: if viewing this film on Canadian Disney+, there is an inclusion of an originally deleted scene where a musical number rears its culturally eviscerating head. “HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUA’A” portrays a spiritually gutted and musically irritating misrepresentation of Native Hawaiian culture. If it seems that my enjoyment of this movie is rooted in musical numbers rather than the film's plot, well, you would be correct. This movie’s narrative, for me, is simply a vehicle for these characters to do choreography in a resort kitchen, by the pool, on a baseball and golf course, and so on and so forth.

Last Tango in Paris (1972) | directed by Bernardo Bertolucci | reviewed by Ali Zakreski

You can’t discuss the film Last Tango in Paris (1972) without acknowledging the elephant in the room: the assault that occurred on set. I won’t sugarcoat it: Maria Schneider was assaulted on set by both her co-star, Marlon Brando, and the director, Bernardo Bertolucci. That scene is difficult to watch, even with the significant trigger warning Dr. Pierson provided before screening the film. I knew of the infamous butter scene, but I wasn’t prepared for how disturbing it would be to watch. I almost had to leave the room because I knew that the fear and humiliation experienced by the character was really experienced by actress Maria Schneider, who was only 19 years old at the time of filming. I am deeply ashamed of enjoying a film that depicts a real assault, especially as a feminist. There’s something incredibly raw about this movie, particularly in its depiction of sex, that I’ve never seen before. I appreciated how the film thoughtfully explored the inner life of Maria Schneider’s character Jeanne, showing her as a flawed young woman making mistakes. Marlon Brando delivers some of his best acting as Paul, portraying one of the most reprehensible men on screen. His repeated words and actions are vile. What makes it compelling is that he doesn't play him as cartoonishly evil; you can still see him as a person. It’s a powerful film that I cannot recommend to anyone, given its graphic content and the real harm it caused to an actual person

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) | directed by Joe Johnston | reviewed by Lucy Schwindt

Although I don't think many people would consider this a guilty pleasure movie, I have such conflicting feelings about telling people I love this movie. I can appreciate a good superhero movie as much as anyone else, but I also have my fair share of issues with specifically MCU movies. And it is safe to say that Captain America: The First Avenger is no exception from those critiques, but regardless of that, I love this movie. I love this movie so much. I think the word "charming" is the perfect way to talk about it. The costumes, the set pieces, the performances, and the story are all just very, well, charming. I have watched this movie more times than I would care to admit at this point, and I imagine I will continue to watch it lots in the future. It is just the perfect thing to put on when I don't know what to watch. I mean, who doesn't love Chris Evans as Captain America?

Saw (2004) | directed by James Wan | reviewed by James Marlow

While the first Saw in a vacuum might still be my favourite guilty pleasure movie of all time, this spot on the list really belongs to the entire Saw franchise and all the glorious trash that comes along with it. There are ten movies in the franchise and even as a die hard fan some of those are hard to sit through, and not in the way a horror movie should be. Yet despite this, I can not get enough of everything about these movies and find myself enjoying the obvious flaws rather than being annoyed by them. Obviously there is some amount of morbid curiosity around the concept of a Saw Trap and watching what creative twisted games the writers have schemed up this time, but that is only a small part of why I love them so much. The hidden best part of Saw is that it is actually a giant soap opera operating in the guise of a torture porn horror movie. The character relationships are already ridiculously convoluted by the end of only the third movie and it only gets worse from there. This spiraling web of double crosses and surprise alliances is only heightened by Kramer and his rambling monologues about nonsense. He is wildly hypocritical from movie to movie and even sometimes from scene to scene, which makes it absolutely impossible to take him seriously once you have heard his shtick for the fifth or sixth time. The same editing, plot, and mandatory twist ending are reused constantly throughout the series and rather than working against it and becoming stale, it has started to feel almost comfortable. I know exactly what I am in for whenever I turn on a Saw film and it is an itch that cannot be scratched by any other horror franchise. So while I will fully admit that they are not high quality movies I will never get tired of hearing a Jigsaw doll ask the often fatal question, “Do you want to play a game?”.