My Formerly Guilty Pleasure

Last night we had a friend over who brought a selection of horror films ranging from high-quality to highly-laughable. In the ensuing discussion, he referred to something as a "formerly guilty pleasure". It turns out the only New Year's Resolution he ever made was never to feel guilty about liking something again. It's been working for him for several years now, and I thought that sounded like a much better way to be. So today I shall tell the whole of the internet about a formerly guilty pleasure of mine, and I shall do so with pride:

I enjoy cliche-riddled teen and tween films.

Not all of them mind you, but generally if they have to do with the empowering of oddballs, I'm in. Just tonight I watched Sydney White, the Amanda Bynes movie based on the story of Snow White (and the Seven Dorks, in this case). I didn't love it, but I plain old enjoyed watching it. And it doesn't surprise me in the least that screenwriter Chad Gomez Creasy is now a scribe for Pushing Daisies, which I do love.

A few weeks ago I watched the latest Nancy Drew movie, and before that it was Accepted. And yes, both Sydney White and Accepted are set in universities (and strangely both feature Jeremy Howard as an obsessed-yet-endearing student focused on his own special projects), but I think the audience they were aiming for is clear, and it wasn't supposed to be me.

The odd thing is, I didn't care much for these kinds of movies when I was actually in the target age range. Beyond animated Disney films, all I wanted to see as a kid was whatever my older brother and parents were watching. Now I'll happily watch Unaccompanied Minors, The New Kid, Sleepover or anything else of that ilk if it's on TV and I'm looking to just relax. I'm also big on the ones that aren't as cliche-heavy, but are still clearly aimed at younger viewers. I really liked Harriet the Spy a few years back, and again am not surprised the writer went on to do other things I liked even more (Doug Petrie = one of the best writers in the sea of awesome writers that was the staff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Currently I'm waiting for the day Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl shows up on afternoon movie rotation, because I have a feeling I'll like that one, too.

So there it is. When I want to just kick back and be entertained, I like to do it with stories that tell me I don't have to do what the other kids are doing to be cool, I just have to be myself. And I like to see those stories told by actors who most people over the age of twenty have never heard of, yet whose career I may well be following with interest (and who often break very big not long after, but that's a story for another post).