Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WUNC End of Year - Make your tax-deductible gift!
Every month, The State of Things hosts a conversation about a topic in film. Host Frank Stasio talks with Laura Boyes, film curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, and Marsha Gordon, film professor at North Carolina State University. And we want to hear from you. Submit your choices by email or tweet us with #SOTMovies.

Movies On The Radio: The Scourge Of The Overrated Movie

still photo from the film, picturing welles seated at a table and coulouris gesturing with a newspaper
Public Domain
Orson Welles and George Coulouris in 'Citizen Kane.' The 1941 film was heralded by some critics as the best movie ever made.

Some films get nothing but love from the critics. They garner five stars, win awards, and spark endless think pieces. But do audiences actually like them? On Movies on the Radio host Frank Stasio speaks with film experts Marsha Gordon, a film professor at North Carolina State University, and Laura Boyes, film curator for the North Carolina Museum of Art, about listener picks for most overrated films.
Some State of Things listeners cite critically-acclaimed flicks like “Citizen Kane” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” as the target of their ire, while others voice frustrations about dolling out hard-earned cash to watch their overrated picks in theaters (popcorn, soda and all). The experts take on everything from the beloved classic “Forrest Gump” to the desperately romantic “Titanic.” 

Listener Picks for Most Overrated Films

Citizen Kane (1941)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9OUZNicTGU

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2UWOeBcsJI

​My Dinner With Andre (1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7hSY0QOkII

​The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover (1989)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dvhgFJKH3w

Forrest Gump (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLvqoHBptjg

Titanic (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCy5WQ9S4c0

​The Big Lebowski (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd-go0oBF4Y

​Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N8wkVA4_8s

The Lobster (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU29VfayDMw
 

Laura Pellicer is a digital reporter with WUNC’s small but intrepid digital news team.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Related Stories
More Stories