In 2015 I decided to watch all the Tom Cruise movies. The good, the bad, the ugly, the painful, the critically insane; the gawkiest, geekiest, trying-too-hardiest offerings in the repertoire of America’s most committed actor. And some of them were pretty good.

Now, I seek new movie-watching challenges. Most of these films aren’t considered great cinematic achievements. But they’re important to me for reasons nostalgic, ironic, and otherwise.

It will be silly. It will be awkward. It will at times be an honest effort to derive meaning from some of the more forgettable corners of modern popular culture. And occasionally we will stumble upon something great.

Follow along as I wade through my personal canon.