Netflix and other streaming services are basically every student’s best friend during finals week, whether used as methods of reward/relaxation or completely inadvisable procrastination. I am no different. I especially enjoy coming home, getting in bed, and watching a movie after finishing an exam. However, after mentally exerting myself, I have no desire to follow a critically acclaimed film that has a complex plot and dynamic characters. I want to watch something trashy and fun with a mediocre online rating, and that’s fine.

Here’s the thing: there are times when I want to watch a well-crafted movie with an excellent script, deliberate camerawork, and talented actors -- the kind of movie that makes you think for a long time after the ending credits roll. However, there are also times when I need to watch a movie about two gracefully aging mothers who fall in love with each other’s incredibly hot teenaged sons. I love the plots of “bad” movies. There are no hidden agendas, no lessons to be learned, no cryptic endings to decipher; these movies simply exist for entertainment and cheap thrills. Even the lessons that can be extrapolated from these guilty pleasure-type movies are glaringly obvious: don’t date the a-hole, be nice to the people around you, don’t cheat on your husband with his architect, et cetera.

This brings me to my second point, which is that watching “bad” movies are a great way to boost self-esteem. You made a fool out of yourself on the Trin dance-floor last night? I’ve seen a movie where the main character pinches a guy’s butt at a bar and then accidentally crashes his wedding in an attempt to win him over. Your exam scores aren’t up to par? I’ve seen a movie centered on a teenaged boy who got expelled and just pretends to go to school every day. Nothing you’ve done is worse than the crazy stupid things that these characters do, because these movies are melodramatic and overblown- but that is exactly what makes them great.

So, yes, I’ll get to that Tarantino movie that everyone keeps telling me to watch. But not yet. For now, it’s finals season, and I want to watch a girl in pink leather pants reunite with her long-lost best friend at a club in Las Vegas, and your judgment is irrelevant. I’m done feeling guilty about my favorite guilty pleasure movies. If you're like me, and you've fallen in love with a movie that got a 58 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, I say, binge on, friend.