10 Terrible Movies That Tricked You Into Thinking They're Good

If this movie's box office is any indication, the greatest showman might actually be director Michael Gracey, who despite producing an aggressively generic, shamelessly whitewashed account of P.T. Barnum's life and times, managed to spin it into a global phenomenon grossing over $430 million, while winning both Golden Globes and Grammys for its music.

And it's truly a testament to how annoyingly infectious The Greatest Showman's music is that audiences were basically gaslit into believing that the dramatic meat of the movie was just as fun and entertaining.

Those catchy, toe-tapping tunes helped buoy a fundamentally twee, cornball feel-good movie that had no interest in actually engaging with the dirtier truth of Barnhum's story, burying it underneath a more cloying, family-friendly dramatic treatment.

Yet even those who generally loathed the film would struggle not to hum along to tracks like "The Greatest Show" and "This Is Me," and so songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul should probably be credited with the lion's share of the movie's success, casting a stupefying spell over audiences.