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As the season goes, it seems like we’re always guaranteed to hear more about critical consensus getting slammed from various forums on the Internet. With the release of Inception (a movie that did not disappoint me, in case you’re curious), there was plenty of griping and complaining on both sides of a debate summed up as follows: there are those who think that Inception is the greatest thing since sliced bread and those who don’t are wrong, and there are those who think the people who love Inception that much are nuts. I’m reducing the arguments, to be fair, but the backlash that arose last week was hard to ignore; one of the film’s chief detractors, a critic for the New York Press who I’m not going to name, went onto the excellent /Film podcast to discuss his opinions on the film, and criticism in general.

I won’t delve into that podcast (though I’m not a particular fan of the episode’s guest, the show is worth listening to), but the critic in question brings up this week’s A-List topic: unpopular opinions. This critic is well known as the contrarian to end all contrarians, but everyone has opinions that aren’t popular. Some people may not like a show like The Wire, they may not like Shakespeare’s works very much, or think that Citizen Kane is overrated (those who think the movie isn’t the best ever are exempt from the categorization). Today, we’ll delve into five of my most unpopular opinions - at least, they’re opinions I assume to be unpopular. Maybe you’ll tell me you agree, or maybe you’ll have some contrarian opinions of your own you’d like to share. Either way, let’s get to this week’s A-List.

Sandra Bullock

Yeah, let’s start out with America’s sweetheart, shall we? I don’t like her. In fact, I pretty much can’t stand her. Before I continue, I’ll get this out of the way: because I am not a heartless person, I think that no one should have had to go through what she did with her ex-husband, Jesse James. My unpopular opinion of her is strictly regarding her movies, which are almost all either forgettable or terrible. You may be charmed by her in the Miss Congeniality films, but I feel ready to throw up when I watch either of them. Yes, you may say, her movies aren’t exactly the best in the world, but is that her fault? Maybe this will say it better: I find her to be disingenuous. Where others find genuine charm and folksy wit, I find nothing but fakery and am rebuffed at her attempts to charm the audience.

As you may or may not remember from articles around the Oscar season, I have not seen The Blind Side; I’m better off for doing so, because I’m predisposed to loathe it. The trailers gave me the impression that I’d be watching Bullock try out her Southern accent for size, like a little girl playing dress-up for her parents. I know that she won the Oscar, but the idea that she won for her years of hard work makes me wonder if the people saying that have looked at her IMDb page lately. All About Steve wasn’t her first clunker. I appreciate that I’m way out on a limb with this one, and I suppose I should be thankful that a female actress over the age of 40 gets to be a star of any kind in Hollywood, but her name associated with a project will likely never excite me.

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