In Seth MacFarlane’s iconic animated sitcom Family Guy, Peter Griffin created a new term for cultural debate in the idea that The Godfather “insists upon itself.” Having since become shorthand for expressing the pretentious, self-indulgent style of various iconic movies, it’s worth looking at just how many classics share this reputation. Film criticism has always been a divisive topic of conversation, but it’s worth looking at what makes a story work — and where some expect too much of their audiences.

Movies can be pretentious and insist upon themselves in a number of ways, from expecting too much from the audience to directors who become overly-impressed with their own style or plot. It’s important to note how much of this can boil down to personal taste, excessive hype from critics, and the general expectation that people admire a film. These are by no means bad, but it’s hard to deny they insist upon their own quality.

10

Forrest Gump (1994)

Directed By Robert Zemeckis

To say that Forrest Gump was one of the biggest sensations of ’90s cinema would undersell how popular the movie was. Here, audiences were shown an epic work of alternative history, one that places its naive but innocent protagonist at the heart of mid-twentieth-century American history in his search for his beloved Jenny. While the story has some great notes, especially in the story of Lt. Dan, it sidelines them in favor of yet another “how Forrest changed America” moment.

Forrest Gump tests the audience’s suspension of disbelief a little too much, practically casting its hero as the most influential American since George Washington himself. The film also demonstrates a lack of self-awareness in some moments, notably in how it presents Jenny as a sympathetic character — while viewers see her as the film’s villain. While Forrest himself is sympathetic, it can come off as sickly-sweet in its character journey, robbing him of depth until the end.

9

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Directed By Frank Darabont

Based on Stephen King’s story, The Shawshank Redemption has become the definitive prison movie in the eyes of millions of movie fans since its 1994 release. Telling the story of an innocent man incarcerated in a dangerous penitentiary, it explores life behind bars, from guard corruption and abuse to the psychological toll of being insтιтutionalized. Although many of the character arcs are great, the film sacrifices realism for its message every step of the way.

The Shawshank Redemption is a brilliant movie, and it more than earned its subsequent success through the home video market (despite having flopped). At the same time, it isn’t without its faults, from the story’s overly sympathetic, even angelic depiction of some of its inmates, who could benefit from some moral ambiguity, to its obsessive fan base. It’s a touching film, but it lays its message on a bit too thick.

8

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Directed By Stanley Kubrick

Developed by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey revolves around a space voyage to Jupiter as the ship’s sentient AI, HAL-900, endangers the crew. The film is loaded full of mystery and complex themes, something that defined the director’s career. However, here it takes the cake as the audience is shown some of the longest, most drawn-out scenes in cinematic history.

Stanley Kubrick was always known for his slow pacing and attention to detail, but 2001 pushes even his most devoted fans to the limits of their patience. Once the film really gets going and embraces its weirdness, it makes for a fun, enigmatic piece of fiction that still has people analyzing it today. However, with its long run time and decompressed storytelling, the film comes across as incredibly self-indulgent, and it’s common for even the biggest sci-fi fans to need a few sittings to get through it.

7

The Godfather (1972)

Directed By Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather documents the saga of an Italian-American crime family, the Corleones, as the son, Michael, returns from World War II and is roped back into the family business. From the outset, the film makes clear that it isn’t an action-thriller, nor a morally black and white crime movie. Instead, it’s a nuanced character study of Michael Corleone, using every step of the story to explore the corruption of his soul and destruction of his status as a literal hero.

I view Coppola’s Godfather as a true masterpiece, but I can understand why fans of modern cinema might feel the movie — but it depends on a viewer’s taste. For people who enjoy films with a wide emotional range, from highs to lows, the film brings an almost unparalleled degree of seriousness. In a world where cinema tends to blend genres and emotions, some might take the story as too stern, serious and self-impressed with its own use of subtext.

6

Citizen Kane (1941)

Directed By Orson Welles

Citizen Kane retroactively explores the life of a business magnate, Charles Foster Kane, after his death. Throughout the story, the audience slowly begins to realize the tragedy behind the man as, despite his enormous wealth, he is full of regrets and nostalgia for his childhood. Here, the classic “money can’t buy happiness” story that’s defined so many movies was brought to perfection.

Despite being a truly brilliant piece of cinema, whose technical achievements deserve respect, Citizen Kane is one of those films that almost expects the admiration of critics and audiences. This isn’t entirely the fault of Welles, nor the story, but rather an image that has been foisted upon it by generations of pretentious critics since. It isn’t enough that the film be respected; some insist much too hard that it’s the greatest film of all time, and are happy to ignore its flaws.

5

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Directed By Daniel Kwan And Daniel Scheinert

In 2022, Everything Everywhere All At Once became an overnight sensation as it put Michelle Yeoh on the map for a new generation and swept the Oscars. Telling the story of an immigrant woman who becomes the focus of a fight to save the multiverse from an evil version of her daughter, it’s a great exercise in style and cinematography. However, as the story progresses, the film-makers get lost in the novelty behind the concept.

Everything Everywhere All At Once almost feels like a movie that was simply created to serve as the ‘thinking person’s’ take on the multiverse. While the character arcs are good and the film’s unique style is captivating, it also comes across as self-congratulatory in some sequences. Though the film’s message of acceptance and generational trauma is powerful, the idea that it needed an epic multiversal adventure to be said is a bit silly. A classic piece of Oscar-bait, critics didn’t help dispel the film’s reputation as overrated when they gave it seven Academy Award wins.

4

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Directed By Victor Fleming

Argued by many to be one of cinema’s first true epic dramas, Gone With the Wind details the life of a Southern woman in the aftermath of the Civil War as she pursues her love. What follows is a long, albeit visually stunning, exploration of the lives of a plantation family as the war is won, slavery ends and Reconstruction begins. At no point does the film meaningfully address virtually anything of substance of its era, instead pushing its backdrop to the side for a pretentious romance story.

At four hours long, Gone With the Wind is a film that, despite some beautiful scenery, lacks all self-awareness in just how tedious it can be. Not only is the audience simply expected to go along with its sometimes rosy depiction of the Antebellum South, but the film is packed full of moments that seek to cast Confederates in a sympathetic light. The more time pᴀsses and the more society progresses, the more tone-deaf and pretentious the movie becomes. If anything, the film has coasted by on its iconic “frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” line.

3

Inception (2010)

Directed By Christopher Nolan

When Christopher Nolan made Inception, he had many fans singing its praises as the best film of his career. Exploring a team of specialists who infiltrate peoples’ dreams to extract information, the film built up a great idea, effectively being a psychological heist. As fun as the story is, it seems to work backwards from its elevator-pitch premise, and attaches too many rules to something that would be so much more interesting without them.

Like many of Christopher Nolan’s films, Inception practically demands the audience respect it for its intricate, cerebral plot, playing on its use of time and mystery to intrigue people. More than anything else, I always felt that the film actually wasted its premise. The ability to explore someone else’s dreams should be a vehicle for a trippy, psychedelic experience — but all the audience gets is bland gimmicks with the expectation they will be impressed.

2

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Directed By Francis Ford Coppola

In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola released what has since become the most iconic modern Dracula movie, casting Gary Oldman as the vampire. While audiences had typically ᴀssociated the character with evil, Coppola sought to bring a tragic, romantic plot to the story. By contrast, the prior iterations of the villain, as defined by the likes of Christopher Lee, had always been considerably darker figures driven by intelligence, obsession, and power. In effect, the director tried too hard to romanticize the villain, losing the edge of the original story.

Coppola’s version of Dracula has its moments, but his take plays too much into the tragic, lovesick image of vampires that has become so irritating for many fans of the genre. The movie’s bizarre character designs also straddled the line between dark fantasy and camp, with the aged Dracula’s infamously bad hairdo being too much to take seriously. The film tries much too hard to work as a period piece, and it ironically makes it that much less believable — not to mention the American cast members’ terrible accents.

1

Fight Club (1999)

Directed By David Fincher

Explored through the eyes of its nameless narrator, Fight Club follows its protagonist as he seeks a break from the soul-crushing monotony of life in corporate America. Accompanied by the dangerous but affirming Tyler Durden, he goes on a journey to discover his masculinity and individualism by starting an underground fight club. While the story presents us with a good message about not being consumed by “the system,” its overly-edgy style sometimes comes across like a sullen teenager’s worldview. Shockingly, many of the film’s fans embraced this without a hint of irony.

Fight Club is one of those movies that, while good, insists upon its irreverent, nonconformist message so much that it created one of the most conformist fandoms in movie history. In Fincher’s defense, it would be silly to say anyone involved in the movie saw Tyler Durden as heroic, but the film still plays into that persona for the viewers. The film’s themes of being subsumed by a corporation and loss of idenтιтy still resonate, but Fight Club’s muddied sense of nihilism can be too much.