Annual Oscar Bitching 2019 Edition

(This has largely gone unedited, but I need to watch the damn things so let me know all of my type-os)

Ugh, the Oscars am I right? Well that seems to be the general sentiment about today’s ceremony, which supposedly honors the best films released in 2018. Taking a quick look at the nominees and even before the films that started to win awards at the countless other shows where rich liberals give each other trophies for being “brave” the field is a little underwhelming. I had a heavy sigh when the Golden Globe nominees were announced and a much more a angry reaction when the winners were given trophies. I knew then that this year’s Oscars were going to be a whole new kind of bad. Leave it to a 90-year-old ceremony to find new ways to anger people.

Now I’ll give my two cents on the nominees for the major categories, I’ll most likely update this after the awards to reflect who wins rather than making it seem like I was a genius who picked everything right. Even if I am right on who wins what, I’m not happy about it unless it means demolishing Caroline in our annual Oscar pool. That’s what I’m into this year, pure sport. The integrity of the show went away a long time ago, I’m simply in it to win it.

The main problem with this award show (and most others I assume) is that it isn’t about honoring the best films. The original idea for the awards some 90 years ago was specifically to honor Hollywood productions. Before sound came around nervous execs feared that superior foreign films might dominate the domestic market. They solved this problem by paying that foreign talent a lot of money to jump ship, but they wanted to make sure that their films were the ones with prestige. So they cooked up an insider party, gave each other awards and for the most part the modern award show was born. It took a full decade before a foreign language film finally got nominated for best picture (The Grand Illusion in 1938, it didn’t win), but the original idea remained the same. This was an American award show for Americans. Specifically people who made movies within their system, using their talent, their unions, etc.

Today the notion of honoring the best films still doesn’t ring true. Sure people vote and in their heart of hearts they most likely vote for the film they truly believe is the best, but there’s a flaw in that system. Think of every time a third party candidate is running for president. Sure you might believe in what they’re saying but you know it’s a two party system and you can either throw away a vote in protest or pick the red or blue puppet closest. This is no different in the Academy. Maybe you get an honest response from cinematography or musical score, but picture, actor, actress, this is a game of politics. In fact to even get nominated you have to woo the Academy. Every year tons of films take out ads and send DVD screeners to members so that they can recognize their movie. I’m paraphrasing, but when Boots Riley’s innovative Sorry to Bother You was shut out he more or less said “That’s cool, we didn’t really try to win any awards.” Riley didn’t take out any for your consideration ads or send any screeners (even though the film was streaming on Hulu), and likewise it was ignored. Even if the much less impressive BlacKkKlansman managed to garner several nominations.

The fact is Spike Lee wanted Academy approval, even if he more than anyone should politely tell all those jackasses to get fucked. So his film did try to cater to that crowd, they tried to woo them, and it was successful to the tune of several nominations including an inexplicable one for Adam Driver. We’re yet to see if it wins anything, my guess is it wouldn’t, but he can maybe heal some of those 29-year-old wounds from watching Driving Miss Daisy win while he wasn’t nominated. So tonight be prepared to watch the best films that tried the hardest to win awards get recognized. Every so often the two align (No Country for Old Men and The Departed come to mind), but far more often it’s the opposite.

So let’s get into the re-caps shall we?

*All nominees are in alphabetical order, not reflecting any personal preference.

Best Picture

Black Panther - This is a conciliatory nod from 2008. That was the last year five films were nominated for best picture, and I bet you don’t remember a single one of them without looking it up. Cool, remember Frost/Nixon, The Reader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, or Slumdog Millionaire? What about Milk, that was also a film that came out that year? Regardless of your recollection of those instantly forgettable films, I bet you remember The Dark Knight? Of course you do, and that film’s exclusion prompted the expansion to more than 5 nominees the next year and you can’t tell me otherwise. BP is a damn good film, but is ultimately just another Marvel movie. I feel like they took a few shortcuts on special effects because they didn’t give it quite the resources of Infinity War, and the film became a huge success largely because holy shit black people actually want to see themselves as superheroes (even as much as Hancock, Steel, and Blank Man led to believe the opposite). I’ve reviewed the film in depth here and I have little to add, but it is nice to see something in the MCU get recognized. Too bad Michael B. Jordan didn’t get singled out as well.

BlacKkKlansman - Fuck Spike Lee for making me type that horrendous spelling of his film title. Anyways this film was a perfectly fine adaptation of the Clayton Bigsby sketch and despite having zero surprises was good in it’s own right. I’ve watched more Spike Lee films than you and I can say this is among his better ones. However this is kinda like when Match Point was getting rave reviews even though Woody Allen just remade his own film Crimes and Misdemeanors without any of the humor. The point is I think people are so excited for any glimpse that “Spike Lee is back” and substitute his name for any other established director and you get the fondness for this return to form. Like many Lee joints before, this is a little too on the nose with it’s social commentary but it’s far from the trainwreck Chi-raq was.

Bohemian Rhapsody - Ooh boy, this one. So Queen has long been my favorite band ever and I avoided this film like the plague. However that internal struggle emerged where my completionist need to see every film nominated for best picture waged war with my desire to avoid a movie that shits all over my favorite band’s history. In the end film won out and I watched this abomination of god. This more than any film shows the power of marketing. This was a run of the mill, wildly inaccurate biopic that should have been forgotten as quickly as Get on Up or All Eyez on Me but the studio did something unique. They put a super hero film sized hype machine behind it and convinced a lot of you midwest yahoos that it was some triumphant story about a great band when it was a cash grab that is both offensive to gay people, anyone who knows about Queen, or people who like movies in general. I feel like the screenwriters listened to Queen’s greatest hits once and maybe had an old Behind the Music on in the background while they banged out this script in a couple hours while high on cocaine. Fuck this movie, Freddie Mercury deserved better and Brian May and Roger Taylor should be ashamed. Also double fuck pedophile Bryan Singer, seriously the man is a piece of shit and the Academy knew this before nominating the film.  

The Favourite - Despite it’s dark horse status, I thought this film was damn good. If I’m ranking Yorgos Lanthimos’s films I’d probably put it behind Dogtooth and The Lobster, but that isn’t saying it’s bad. I loved the weird extreme wide angle cinematography and the technical aspects of it are worthy of a best picture nod. The three female leads are all excellent even if Emma Stone’s British accent takes some suspension of disbelief. This does however strike me as one of those good films that no one will remember existed in like 3 months.

Green Book - I know none of you read my Green Book review, but scroll down on my blog and it’s there. This film deserves cancer of the anus and is a firm reminder that no matter how many times they give a black actress a best supporting actress statue, they have a long, long way to go. This is well meaning liberal garbage in the worse sense of the term and is actively holding back the progress of this nation and it’s entertainment by several years. Peter Farrely would be better suited to directing another Stuck on You than attempt another white savior picture.

Roma - So time for a confession. I didn’t like Roma as much as I wanted to. This happens on occasion when a great director makes a new movie that also gets rave reviews. I go into with sky high expectations and find it to be quality but not up to their previous work. In the case of Roma, I feel like the films sort of non-narrative layout worked but also made everything seem more like a general feeling than a specific group of scenes. I am rooting for this to win best picture, because after 90 years holy shit a foreign language film eventually needs to win this award already. I’m sure a second viewing would help, and lucky for all of us it’s on Netflix forever. The fact that this was a Netflix release presents an uphill battle for the ancient Academy voters who fear new things, so expect those people to vote for Green Book instead.

A Star is Born - For someone who spends the majority of their free time watching movies I can honestly say a lot of them didn’t need to be made. I can argue how necessary any of these nominees are, and with the exception of Black Panther most of them could have not existed and my life would be exactly the same. A Star is Born is unnecessary in every way. It’s kind of a shame because Bradley Cooper does act his ass off, and Sam Elliot is a national treasure. I knew every thing that was going to happen in this film before it happened, and at the end of the day well crafted pointlessness just rings hollow. Even for a Lady Gaga fan let’s just admit the world doesn’t need to see that woman on stage with false humility crying and holding another golden statue.

Vice - Along with Tag, which not surprisingly didn’t get a single nomination, Vice was probably the film we didn’t know we needed. Adam McKay has proven to be a rather fantastic director. I do think The Big Short was the best film of 2015, and you need only watch the Will Ferrell movies he hasn’t directed to notice McKay’s importance. Vice could have been Christian Bale boring us with a perfect impersonation of Dick Cheney much like Gary Oldman bored everyone with The Darkest Hour last year (remember a single scene from that movie?), but instead McKay sought to keep things interesting and had enough fun flourishes to keep it from being a boring paint-by-numbers biopic. Kinda wish they let him direct Bohemian Rhapsody.

Best Director

Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman - Hey Spike, congratulations you’re finally nominated for best director. Seeing his live reaction to the nominees being announced made me feel genuine joy for this man who has fought a very long uphill battle against the white devils controlling studio power for decades. Spike has been known to be a bit extravagant in his directing choices but things are relatively restrained here. My one major knock on this film and his directing is the ridiculous scene where the KKK screens Birth of a Nation. I mean yeah the Klan probably loves that shit, but it’s three hours and silent and nobody is jumping up and down hooting and hollering, certainly not a bunch of honkey racist crackers.

Pawel Pwlikowski, Cold War - From the director of Polish People Being Sad in Black and White, comes another film where Polish people do things in black and white. Did you see Cold War? I bet you didn’t. I did, and it’s pretty much the same as Ida, good old revisionist art house faire. The type of thing that critics often like but Academy members usually run screaming in horror against. This film was produced in part by Amazon so they did have Jeff Bessos’s untaxed $11.2 billion in profits to help sell the film to Academy members. Good for Pawel, but I’m a monkey’s uncle if he wins.

Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite - These names are fun to type aren’t they? I’ve enjoyed seeing Yorgos get some mainstream recognition after his first four features pleased critics and few else. Turns out all you need to get award show recognition is a British costume drama. I think he does a fantastic job, and seriously I loved almost every shot of this film. He is one of the most unique and fascinating directors working today, too bad he won’t win.

Alfanso Cuaron, Roma - Cuaron won for Gravity right? Yeah well I think he’s going to win for this too. Cuaron did EVERYTHING in this movie because Mexico doesn’t abide by silly Hollywood rules about unions and such. He shot it, wrote it, edited it, and probably cooked pazole for the crew during breaks. If Roma is good it’s pretty much 100% because of this man, so give him his prize already.

Adam McKay, Vice - I’d like to see McKay win this award because he made the most entertaining nominee by a fucking mile. The fake-out ending, the expositions, the focus groups, etc. McKay might be damned by his inability to tell a story, even a serious one with a straight face, but that’s why I love him. He reminds me of me if I ever got a chance to make movies like this, although I’m sure mine would be way worse and another disgruntled film nerd would be writing in their blog about what a hack I am.

Best Actress

Yalita Aparicio, Roma - Nothing says this category is meaningless quite like having two people who have never starred in a feature film be nominated for best actress. Meryl Streep must be spinning in her grave. I think Aparicio is fine in the film, and really this movie would not have worked without her. I will also say that her inclusion in this ceremony is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise steaming pile of shit. That said it would be a god damn joke and an insult if she actually won, but good for her. I assume she’ll have fond memories of going to the Oscars next year when she gets back to raising chickens or whatever the hell she does for her real job.

Glenn Close, The Wife - Did you see this film? Probably not, Glenn Close is in Julianne Moore for Still Alice territory here. A well respected actress whose gotten a few nominations but never the top prize, so they’ll probably just say here you go, now go ahead and retire. She’s been nominated 6(?) times before, and this film will be as remembered as all those other films. Seriously try and remember two of the films she was nominated for. I’ll give you Fatal Attraction, go ahead and guess another. No she wasn’t nominated for 101 Dalmations. Anyways her dog is awesome, and her winning means we’ll only have to see Lady Gaga on stage to win her Original Song Oscar.

Olivia Coleman, The Favourite - She was in Hot Fuss, shit yeah. Anyways, I kinda thought Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz were the leads in this film, but Coleman does steal the show and acts rings around the two of them. Queen Anne is the type of role that actresses usually win awards for but my money is on Close. I feel like she did a lot more for this role than the other actresses, even if 90% of her scenes involve her sitting or laying down in bed.  

Lady Gaga, A Star is Born - Good for you. Does this beat playing the Super Bowl halftime show? Is she fucking Bradley Cooper in real life, because it kinda seems like she is, or maybe she is that great of an actress.

Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? - I’m going to bet none of you saw this. Well McCarthy has a ridiculous hair cut, plays a shitty alcoholic who can write forgeries. The film wasn’t as great as I was hoping considering how much I loved Marielle Heller’s previous film Diary of a Teenage Girl, but McCarthy is good. Maybe this is the Academy’s way of saying “remember when you laughed at us for nominating her in Bridesmaids, see she’s a serious actress.” Could have been worse she could have been recognized for Happytown Murders.

Best Actor

Christian Bale, Vice - Christian Bale is like Daniel Day Lewis except he doesn’t spend nearly enough time deciding what films to make. As such, he has utterly transformed and lost himself in absolute pieces of shit no one saw or remembered. Vice he goes full Gary Oldman, he gets fat, and he should win this award. He’s always awesome regardless of how shitty the film is, and well he’s simply better than everyone else in this category so here’s to another Batman actor winning an Oscar.

Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born - Ok, so this film didn’t need to be made, but Cooper is really fucking good in it. His directing is clearly trying super hard to impress us, but this is an actors movie and maybe enough people think it’s his time. I can shit on him as a director or a writer but he did a fine job as an actor. Even if half his dialogue is mumbled in an octave that only makes sense if you’re Sam Elliot, it’s still good emoting. That said playing drunk, strung out rock stars is super easy.

Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate - Willem Dafoe should be on currency, then everyone would have nightmares when they open their wallet instead of just me. I didn’t see this film because I’ve seen 4 other films about Van Gogh (that sounds like another nominee). I’m sure he’s great, but you should probably just watch Antichrist (hello stunt cock) and Speed 2. Ooh he was in Body of Evidence with Madonna, wanna watch Madonna fuck Willem Dafoe? I bet you do now, that’ll probably be more entertaining than this year’s telecast.

Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody - I don’t know who this man is but he did a fine job as Freddie. He had the stage presence and the mannerisms down. I do feel like his prosthetic teeth did most of the heavy lifting for him, but there’s a reason everyone was praising him in this role. In fact other than hearing Queen songs he might be the one redeeming quality about this film. That said still don’t watch this film or give it awards, let’s not encourage this type of behavior.

Viggo Mortensen, Green Book - Hey fughetabout it eh? Dis wise guy got fat ate fried chicken and learned the meaning of true love. Ugh, this insulting garbage hurt. I can’t fault Viggo, whose great claim to fame is being the only person on earth named Viggo, for his role. I mean he was hired for a job and he did it admirably, even in the service of an insultingly bad film. God, this show is bringing out so much hate in me.

Best Supporting Actress

Regina King will probably win this. I really don’t remember her in If Beale Street Could Talk, a film that btw was better than every film nominated for best picture. She fits the mold of best supporting actress to a T. I also feel the two Favourite actresses will cancel each other out, and who the hell is Marina de Tavira? Seriously what role did she play in that film, was she the other maid, the mom, one of the kids? I really don’t know.  Oh also I like Amy Adams, but she won’t win.

Best Supporting Actor

Can anyone not do a good George W. Bush impersonation? Drew Magary called Sam Elliot “The voice of beef” and I’ve been crying laughing for days. I hope he wins just so I can hear that melodious bovine baritone thank the cattle farmers of West Texas or some shit. Also Adam Driver over Michael B. Jordan. Kylo Ren was as expressive in this as he was in Patterson and that at least had the excuse of being directed by Jim Jarmusch. Oh yeah and Richard E. Grant played, wait for it, a drunk. Mahershela Ali was classy and dignified which is how the Academy likes their colored folk to be come award season. I really have no idea whose winning this so let’s just for the record say Elliot.

Anyways I gotta shower and go to an Oscar party where I’ll drink enough to forget who wins any of these.  Hope you had a laugh, and remember baseball season is like a month away.  

The IMDB Top 250: A Rant

If you’re reading this as it’s posted, then you’ll know the Academy Awards are less than two weeks away. There is no host, four categories won’t be televised, and somehow it’ll still probably go over schedule as they invite Cirque du Soleil to pantomime the best documentary short subject nominees or some crap. A lot of people, myself included aren’t very excited about this year’s broadcast, or the group of nominees. If I had to make a bold statement I’d say that it’s probably the weakest group of nominees since 2008, the last year only 5 films were nominated for best picture. I’ll give you a quick second to look up the films nominated that year, do you remember any of them. Have you watched a single one in the past decade? Slumdog Millionaire was dated when it was released and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a rather hilarious joke on The League.

However I’m not here today to talk about the Oscars. I still have some vague hope of offering an in depth preview that I’m sure you’re all dying to read, but alas I have a few films left to see. I am looking forward to approximately none of the films I have to watch, but the completionist in me is a masochist so bring on A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody I guess. Today I’m here to bitch about something else, imdb*. You know that site that’s been around since you had AOL trial discs and people paid money to use Netscape. As someone who proudly still has a hotmail address I shouldn’t shit on imdb just for being around forever, but it kinda seems like this site jumped on board early and no one bothered to try harder. Sure we’d all like to go back using Myspace, but the internet evolves, yet somehow this site hasn’t.

Behold the King of the Dumpster Fire

Before I get too in depth I should say that there are plenty of sites that have done a far better job than imdb at doing imdb like things. There are places you can read reviews, rate films, join forum discussions, but somehow none of these places has ever gotten the traffic the old fossil has. For this reason their ranking of the top 250 films has more or less become a benchmark for a lot of people. Young and impressionable film fans look at this as a valid source to investigate. “Hey according to imdb Shawshank Redemption is the greatest film of all time” and other blatant lies. Sure you’re telling me it’s a random list and only people like you obsess over lists and have a compulsion to check off everything on them. Well then this blog is for people like me, because frankly most of my blog is for people like me, so let me rail against the injustice of the internet.

The single thing that makes the imdb list seem credible is the same thing that makes it powerfully pointless. That is the fact that the list is voted on by users. Literally anyone can go on that site and rate a film. In my younger years I’m sure I rated quite a few myself. In fact you can log in right now and rate Baywatch 10/10, or let everyone know that Citizen Kane is an overrated turd so it deserves a 1/10 rating. This is entirely in your power, and no one can stop you. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people rate movies here does sort of balance the scales a bit, so that butthurt kid who didn’t “get” 8 1/2 won’t have too much influence. The problem is that these do tend to compound and grow over time. As more people voice their opinions certain things begin to be perceived as true. As long as I can remember Shawshank has inexplicably occupied the top spot, so for a growing generation of film fans this might as well be their Citizen Kane. Kane by the way is #120 on the list as of this writing, about 100 spots lower than Interstellar, and 40 spots lower than Green Book, Green Book. Does anyone on this planet actually think Green Book is better than Citizen Kane? If you do please don’t reproduce, you’re the reason Donald Trump is the president. You probably also think the fact that winter exists is proof global warming is a liberal hoax.

Now just as the power of democracy has led to really stupid people giving other stupid people the power to make really stupid decisions, so has this site propagated this for far too long. At least in the US you need to be over 18, a non-convicted felon, and a citizen to vote. So the idea is that at least theoretically you are a law-abiding citizen who gets to elect your oppressors. The popularity contest of the internet doesn’t require such things as being an informed adult. Not sure this list would be greatly affected if only non-felons could vote, but I’m positive it would look a lot different if you were over 18. Like democracy though you don’t really need to know anything in order to cast a vote. I could drunkenly show up to my polling place and flip a coin for every decision and my vote would be perfectly legal. Just like I could drunkenly log on to imdb and decide every Adam Sandler movie needs to be rated 10/10.

So you might be saying “so what?” Get over it Dave, nobody cares about the list, so why should you? If a bunch of ignoramus’s are running the show, pay it no mind. After all if I’m on a site like listchallenges.com and I see a random list of “the greatest movies” and after scrolling through a few see it’s utter dreck I move on. It’s fun to make lists, and it’s fun to share those lists. I know there are some people who probably looked at my last list in 2013 and thought I knew nothing. They probably also said “what the hell are some of these movies,” but that’s one person’s opinion. I did attempt with my essential cinema post several years ago to make a blueprint of cinema. A 100 film list that could set you on your way to becoming your very own film nerd.

The difference between that list and the imdb one is that it wasn’t compiled from knowledgeable people. I’ve seen thousands of movies, and gone through the work of watching way more than you have for the purposes of whittling this down. I offered what I thought were informed choices based on not just my opinion but hundreds of other critics and a lot of lists. You may recall Shawshank didn’t even end up on that list. In fact only about 8 of the top 20 were on my list. As a point of comparison They Shoot Pictures Don’t They’s top 20 featured 19 films on my list. The only reason Taxi Driver didn’t make my own Essential Cinema list is because I already included Raging Bull and Goodfellas. Now I’m not sure how much weight the imdb list does play into TSPDT’s rankings, but considering that site uses thousands of different lists to make their compilation, the guess is it wouldn’t factor too much.

Back it up a bit how does that work? If imdb is a “popularity contest” wouldn’t TSPDT’s list look similar? After all that site also takes lists from all over the world, and you’d think that the more popular films would show up on more lists and therefore would weigh heavier. This is where you have to check your source. The lists that make up TSPDT are from critics, sites, magazines, newspapers, etc. In other words they’re from professionals. Maybe a few reader poll lists were taken into account, but it’s not like you could go on that site and simply vote for which films belong. Trust me I would have bitched and moaned about anyone including Andy Warhol’s Empire on there.

Years ago when I first checked out imdb’s top 250 I found I had seen everything on it without trying. I knew the tastes of the masses and was well enough informed it wasn’t even a challenge. As you might expect from getting a little older and less interested in films that regular people like, I’ve slipped a bit. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get myself up to speed on the soon to end decade’s best films. This led me to poke around at imdb as a potential reference point. I’m probably sitting somewhere around 230 or so of the current list. The problem isn’t that I’m shaking my fists that these damn kids are saying “yeet” and listening to their mumble rap too loud and need to get off my lawn, it’s more what I have seen. Due to the nature and traffic of imdb there are always going to be new people logging on and treating this list as some sort of gospel or at the very least a good place to start. To some extent this isn’t wrong, there are a lot of really good movies on the list in various places.

The numbering does present a problem. Of my own top 100 (not the Essential Cinema list) I share about 20 films in common with their top 100. This is slightly skewed because I included the first two Godfather films as one entry and the original Star Wars trilogy as another. This is a polite way of saying essentially I disagree with 80% of that list, at least the first 100. Again comparing this to TSPDT’s list I had 43 films in common with their top 100. For a quick analysis, this might just indicate that my tastes are more in line with professional film critics and I’ve lost touch with the common movie-goer. To which I would reply it just means my tastes are more correct. You ever take a film class in college and some 18-20 year old told you how awesome Donnie Darko was? I’m dating myself with this reference, but those are the people who flood imdb with their ratings. These people love Fincher, Nolan, and The Matrix, and can’t be bothered with Satyajit Ray, Mizoguchi, or Antonioni.

This man is extremely popular with the kids.

The democratic system also bothers me in terms of the ratings. There are only a total of 4 films with a rating of 9.0 or better. Converting this to stars that’s essentially saying only 4 films ever are better than 4 1/2 stars. You don’t have to look far in this list to find some head scratching rankings. Feel free to browse at your leisure for your biggest personal offender. One potential positive of imdb vs. TSPDT is that there doesn’t seem to be any bias towards recent films. In fact more than a couple films released in the last twelve months are in the top 100, compared to only two films made after 2000 in TSPDT’s top 100. The bias in TSPDT’s list is a little more explanatory when you factor in how the votes are cast but if you’re looking for more recent recommendations they had to create a separate list of 21^st century films.

Now while including more recent films might seem like a positive for imdb, it does have it’s drawbacks. There is no benefit of time to judge these films. Hell I loved Into the Spiderverse, but you are out of your mind if you think it is the 15^th greatest film ever made (where it is currently ranked on imdb). Also you might get something like Adhadhun currently listed at #21. You never heard of that film? Neither has anyone else not from India. Yes it is nice to see some Bollywood films being in the discussion but it currently has the 3^rd lowest number of votes on the list. Looking through some of the other least voted on films are a lot of foreign films and classics. This isn’t surprising, because it is somewhat a popularity contest, so modern users don’t particularly care to watch old black and white movies or read annoying subtitles. The other frightening possibility is that people are voting and rating movies that they haven’t even seen. After all nothing’s to stop you and verify you’ve actually seen the movie you’re trashing or praising. Keep in mind also that many people only vote when a film elicits a strong response in you whether good or bad.

So what’s the solution? Well I could just whine and cry and leave it at that but there are a few suggestions. Perhaps they can use more than simply user ratings to rank their top 250. Perhaps factoring in Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes scores, although a “Certified Fresh” designation is the film equivalent of a participation trophy. At least it weighs it against other factors, and tries to at least acknowledge that professionals may agree. Raising the total number of ratings required for the list seems like a great way to make this list full of even more recent films, so that idea is out. Then there’s the old fashioned, simply rate films yourself. To walk the walk, I decided to rate every film I’ve seen on the top 250. Not sure my rankings will effect things too strongly either way and I can’t help but feel like this is the same as voting for the president when you’re not in a swing state #abolishtheelectoralcollege.

It’s hard to say that my own votes weren’t colored by the list itself. I actually didn’t rate Into the Spiderverse because frankly I thought it was too damn high and knew that my rating would only help it. Likewise I may have lowered an honest rating one or two notches for a film that I liked but found overrated by these rankings. So perhaps the best thing to do is to go back to what I’ve done for the last decade and a half, and ignore the site. Ignore the list, ignore the god awful layout, don’t bother with the forums and get my cinema news and reviews from another source.

*I am aware imdb would ordinarily be capitalized, but as a form of pointless petty protest I have opted to keep it lower case.