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Mother’s Day opened in fourth place to horrific reviews this weekend. The film marked director Garry Marshall‘s third foray into the world of Hallmark card holidays and stands as a testament to the fact that many film critics do not like Garry Marshall’s films. Why? Is it because his films lack the technical wonder we go to the theater for? Is it because he chooses schmaltz over nuance at every turn? Or is it because he peaked with The Princess Diaries?

Look, I am not here to argue about whether or not Garry Marshall is a “good” director, but I do believe there is an argument to be made that he is a great American auteur. By that, I mean his work fits snugly into classic auteur theory (aka the school of film criticism that says a director’s voice should take on an almost authorial-like role despite the fact that film is a collaborative process).

If we’re defining an auteur as the kind of director whose vision supersedes that of the screenwriter, then Garry Marshall totally fits the bill. He took a devastating look at the life (and death) of a sex worker in Los Angeles and made it into Pretty Woman. Since the beginning of his career, Marshall has preferred to present a happily zany — if not also aggressively sunny — vision of the world. After all, this is the man who created the shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. This is not a dark soul. If anything, Marshall’s work is about shining such a bright light on everything that the audience is blinded and struck dumb. Though he typically makes comedies, even his big dramas, Beaches and Frankie and Johnny, tug at the heartstrings and make an argument for the abiding power of love.

Visually, all of Garry Marshall’s films all share a similar aesthetic. His is a brightly-lit world full of bright colors on big characters. His films also pay close attention to the importance of appearance in defining ourselves. Characters are often defined by clothes — for better or ill. Consider the differences in style and manner between C.C. and Hillary in Beaches. Recall how in Pretty Woman, all Julia Roberts needs to be a lady is a borrowed necklace and a cocktail dress. The entire plot of The Princess Diaries can be boiled down to the phrase: “Let’s do a makeover.” His films themselves often have the visual depth of a well-made cable television show, this simultaneously makes it easier and harder for the audience to relate to the unrealistic world onscreen.

Which leads us to his “trilogy” of ham-fisted holiday schmaltz-fests: Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, and Mother’s Day. These three films exist in a strange continuum where our lives only matter on holidays, where everyone resembles a movie star, and where awkwardness doubles as humor. They also are such obvious cash-grabs that you can’t even be tempted to call them “art.” But perhaps that was what Marshall intended them to be. What are films but feeble ways to pass the time as we slip off our mortal coil and prepare to embrace the cold kiss of death? What is Hollywood but a capitalist machine devoted to taking our human experience and pummeling it through an industrial process like a meat grinder? Marshall’s trilogy defies convention by being unapologetically apart of this nihilistic parade. He’s not pretending that he’s given us anything more than a numbing agent. In this way, these films are truth; These films are Garry Marshall’s truth. And his truth is made of lies.

Garry Marshall’s films can be described as “comfort food.” Indeed, he has an optimistic attitude that is soft and sweet and silly and, yes, comforting. His bonkers worldview overwhelms every topic he touches: medical drama, kidnapping, alcoholism, sex work, dead parents, dead friends, psychological distress at the thought of getting married, Lindsay Lohan, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day, and arranged royal marriages. The bottom line is he has a point-of-view as a director and it defines his all of his work. His “feel-good” films have shaped the way many of us see the world. Love him or hate him: The man’s got vision.

Garry Marshall is an auteur.

Where to Stream Some Of Garry Marshall’s Most Iconic Films

[Where to Stream Overboard]
[Where to Stream Beaches]
[Where to Stream Pretty Woman]
[Where to Stream Runaway Bride]
[Where to Stream The Princess Diaries]