I take the advice of my kids, who know me well. They usually see movies first and tell me if I would like them. I am fussy about movies.............they have to end happily or at least not so miserably that I dream about it for days or weeks.
We saw Dances with Wolves with our eldest son and his wife. My son wanted to sit by me so he could tell when to hide my eyes (I have to do that in lots of movies). He had seen it already and wanted me to see it, but knew I would be mad if I saw about three of the more miserable scenes. As a result I loved that movie. I know I would have hated it if I had to see those scenes, and imprint them on my mind.
I usually really hate the "artistic" movies that get all the critical acclaim, but have poor or loose story lines. One I remember was "Woman Under the Influence". That was many years ago, but since then I avoid movies that the critics say are "wonderfully different".