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TychoCelchuuu

Criticker: It Tells You If You'll Like a Movie

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Part of my skepticism of data-driven algorithm based recommendations (and this extends way beyond Criticker and even beyond movies) is that, in over ten years of talking about films online, podcasting about films with tons of different people, posting reviews on Criticker and later Letterboxd, being friends with pretty much only movie people on Facebook, etc. I have never once met someone whose taste is actually similar to mine. There is not another human I've ever encountered in person, online, via a film site, etc. who I don't diverge with in taste in several major ways.

 

That's why I like following the 83 people I choose to follow on Letterboxd. I know that one person may have the same taste in slasher movies in me, while another may have the same taste in contemporary arthouse fare, but also I know I can discount it when they, say, gush over a Brian DePalma movie because I know that me and them have wildly different opinions of his work. I grow to know them and their predilictions and their pet peeves. And even when I disagree (for example, the new cult that has risen around Paul W.S. Anderson, declaring the Resident Evil movies post-modern masterworks) there is value in being exposed to those opinions.

 

Also, I do think there is some benefit in willfully throwing yourself into movies that you don't think you'd like, but that is definitely dependent on what you want to get out of film culture. Probably all this is dependent on what you want to get out of film culture. 

 

I will say that I've never seen Criticker crash and Letterboxd is down on a fairly regular basis, which is very annoying.

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I'm sure the suggestion algorithm is a good suggestion algorithm, I'm simply not interested in any suggestion algorithm (at this time). The real reason I'm likely to stick with letterboxd is probably just inertia, of course, but also I really like the diary paradigm. I like seeing a movie, recording when I saw it, and writing what I thought about it then (allowing for revision and more thoughts when I see it again). A diary paradigm also aligns well with how I'm writing for an audience of myself, you know, like a diary.

 

I 100% don't trust myself rating a movie from memory beyond 'enjoyed' or 'didn't enjoy', especially if it's been longer than a month or so since I've seen it. When I started logging I spent some bored downtime going through movies I've seen in the past and giving them ratings before I realized how pointless an exercise that was, at least for my purposes. 

 

32 minutes ago, Patrick R said:

Also, I do think there is some benefit in willfully throwing yourself into movies that you don't think you'd like, but that is definitely dependent on what you want to get out of film culture. Probably all this is dependent on what you want to get out of film culture. 

 

I've thought about this a lot recently. Since I've started logging movies I've realized that, in addition to watching few movies in general, I've watched exceedingly few movies that I dislike. I blame this mostly on vigorous self-curation that's easy to fall into without any effort: I would only see a movie once I was fairly certain I'd enjoy it.

 

At this point I'd like to better understand what I like vs what I don't, and I think that necessarily means watching movies that I end up disliking. But it's a tricky thing, because I still don't want to deliberately seek out movies that I suspect are reprehensible or that are otherwise likely to really put me off. 

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