HYPE PRAISE INDEED

Are these lauded movies works of rare genius or baffling, bloated nonsense? It’s entirely subjective, as is Ed Power’s pick of the 15 most overrated films of the 21st century

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It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and let your emotions run away with you. Just ask anyone who paid £600 for Oasis tickets only to realise they were sick of hearing “Wonderwall”

Belated buyer's remorse is just as much a feature of the big screen, where mediocre films are often heralded as masterpieces in the moment. It's only afterwards, when the hype has died and critical faculties have returned, that we can admit to ourselves that a supposed 24-carat classic is actually a tin-plate clunker.

Here are 15 movies praised to the skies over the past 25 years, but which time has arguably revealed to be cinematic dross.

15. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Michelle Yeoh picked up an Oscar for her performance (A24) This baffling parallel universe caper stars Michelle Yeoh as a disillusioned laundry worker who dreams of the many glamorous lives she might have led had things panned out differently. But nowhere in these alternate existences does anything resembling a serviceable storyline emerge. One scene follows another, with little evidence of a unifying plot or satisfying arc.

Despite these flaws, the film mopped up at the Academy Awards. Among its seven Oscars were gongs for Best Actor (Ke Huy Quan), Actress (Yeoh) and Director (the duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who annoyingly refer to themselves as "the Daniels"). But don't despair. There is surely another dimension out there where the Academy resisted its quirky hipster charms and that it was going to be impossible to get a babysitter anyway.

14. There Will Be Blood (2007)