The B List The National Society of Film Critics on the Low-Budget Beauties, Genre-Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love

What kind of collection could possibly find common ground among The Son of Kong, Platoon, and Pink Flamingos? What kind of fevered minds could conceive of such a list? What are the unheard-of qualities that tie them all together?The answers: This book. The National Society of Film Critics. And the far-reaching enticements of the B movie itself.Once the B movie was the Hollywood stepchild, the underbelly of the double feature. Today it is a more inclusive category, embracing films that fall outside the mainstream by dint of their budgets, their visions, their grit, and occasionally-sometimes essentially-their lack of what the culture cops call "good taste."The films in The B List are offbeat, unpredictable, and decidedly idiosyncratic. And thatrs"s why we love them.

David Sterritt is chairman of the National Society of Film Critics and a film professor at Columbia University. He lives in Baltimore.

John Anderson writes regularly for Variety, the New York Times, and Newsday. He lives in Los Angeles.