The acting isn't necessarily good or bad, it simply is. Relations of power and subservience are acted out, expected roles are reinforced, and, above all, the people in home movies do act, and act like we would in everyday life. The difference between home movies and most other movie genres is that in home movies, the actors act is if the camera is there, rather than act to deny it. Home movies are indulgent. The creator can be proud of the images he or she presents, and others are free to be bored or underwhelmed.
Home movies privilege the drama of the undramatic.
Home movies rarely show the real dramatic moments of life. Drama is no time to take out the camera and set the frame. Home movies show something else. If anything, they present the times in between the drama, where life is simply lived, when there is a simple lull where the most basic building blocks can be presented. Gertrude Stein spoke about her goal of writing about what happens when nothing at all is happening.