Culture Crash: The Mid-Tier Movies

There are a lot of great films that have been made, and a lot of terrible movies that have been made, and then there’s even more movies in the middle. The middle-grade movie that can pass the time efficiently enough–those movies deserve more love than they get.

Netflix recently served me up a forgotten 2007 thriller called Cleaner starring Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes and Ed Harris. It’s fine. You guys, it’s fine. It’s thrilling enough, entertaining enough, interesting enough. It is not going to set your world on fire or change your worldview, but it will pass 90 minutes.

I also recently watched The Night Clerk, a mystery movie from just a few years back with Ana de Armas and Tye Sheridan. Similarly mediocre. Hulu pretty recently started streaming Fresh, a gross-out horror thriller in the mold of a get out type of movie. It does not reach nearly the heights of get out, but fresh is interesting and compelling!

I know it can be tempting to root for every movie, every show, every book to be a masterpiece, but the fact of the matter is, every act of creation is pretty impressive. Even these movies that miss the mark in some way–movies that are not destined to become classics or win awards–can be a ton of fun. Date nights, sick days, and early mornings deserve some entertainment, and that’s where the glorious mediocre movie can really come in handy.