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If you don't find IMDB reviews useful you may like Cherry Picks instead
Here's the IMDB page for The Souvenir (distributed by A24). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6920356/
IMDB users give the score as 6.6, and the user reviews are stuffed full of people who hate it. The critic reviews are almost entirely positive though.
Here's the Cherry Picks page for The Souvenir. https://www.thecherrypicks.com/films/souvenir
They use reviews from "female-identifying and non-binary film critics", and as a result the film gets good reviews.
I find the reviews surfaced by Cherry Picks to be more thoughtful, more considered, and more useful to me than those surfaced by IMDB or MetaCritic (even though they all pull critic reviews from many of the same sources).
I've found some great films via Cherry Picks.
I have been dying for an alternative of IMDB. The issue with IMDB is that it is now overrun with those "free speech" crowd who simultaneously dislike anything with a main woman/people of colour lead, or featuring strong women/POC, etc.
I'm now looking for an alternative movie database that is somewhat opinion free, but also has actors/actresses/directors/etc info like IMDB.
EDIT: Nevermind, just found The Movie DB
Wow, thanks for turning me on to The Movie DB. This looks so much better than IMDB, and they have a UI that isn't 20 years old to boot.
Haha thanks! I pretty much just seached "IMDB alternative" in DuckDuckGo and a few clicks later I was on there.
I think what I like about it the most is the decent UI and the lack of a social network - it's just the movie/show, the people involved, and some professional reviews - which is all I really care about to be honest.
EDIT: I found out the "professional reviews" were actually user submitted reviews. 🤦 It doesn't even have curated professional reviews!!! Gah!
At least there's Rotten Tomatoes for that. (he says hoping he doesn't have to eat his words 5 mins later)
If you're building a spreadsheet for movies, I have 2,484 Pauline Kael reviews with IMDB IDs, title, and the review itself that I can post.
Sadly, I'm not building a spreadsheet - but thanks for the offer!
well, if you ever find yourself heading down that road, hit me up!
The Souvenir got 8.2/10 on RT https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_souvenir
Curiously it received 4.8/10 from the top 1000 voters of IMDB, and the segment that liked it the most were men aged 18-29 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6920356/ratings?ref_=tt_ov_rt
I've been building a media spreadsheet using a few APIs. I've been tweaking it for a few years now. Using a combination of ratings generally gives a good picture for 'general accessibility', but we really need to give weight to reviewers we identify with
For me, I immediately drop RT Users. They often seem either too-hyped or too-negative, rarely giving a realistic insight into a film's quality.
With TMDB -- especially with older films -- the ratings are always lower than IMDB by about 5% - 10%.
Letterboxd ratings are pretty good overall and the demographic for the site is typically in-line with my own views, but the site can be overly critical re: newer films (especially domestic)
Ebert's reviewers are almost always on the right track, but with the four star system you can't use the rating as actual data. Ebert's own ratings were also almost always in line with my own tastes, but there were times where he was a bit harsh on a film.
IMDB is usually an okay measure. I'm a male, but not 18-29 -- but I find that this demographic 'gets it' more than the other demographics.
Metacritic is pretty decent, but I find that their ratings are geared more toward mainstream viewers -- folks who don't mind artsy stuff, but prefer blockbusters / big-name films.
Lastly, there are a bunch of great reviewers on Letterboxd that are in-line with my own tastes. In this case I went with David Ehrlich (Indiewire), who has pretty good taste.
Overall, If you're looking for a rating / suggestion for a film to watch for yourself, find some letterboxd users who you tend to agree with and then base your data off of them. If you're choosing a movie for a movie night with a mix of friends, a combination of IMDB and TMDB is great.
From their About page:
In 2019 I find this a step backwards. We need to diversify public spaces and make them all inclusive, or create new alternatives that don't discriminate on besides civil behaviour. This is the inverse thereof, a mainly gender based, segregated space, that also does not shy away from reinforcing various female stereotypes.
It's just one website doing specifically curated shows for a specific audience. I don't really see this being any different to, say, a website that only shows reviews of horror films.
I don't think it's going to be the place where I'm going to look for recommendations or anything, but I'm glad it exists and I don't mind checking it out from time to time because it's nice to have a bit of variety.
And Cherry Picks is one way to diversify public spaces by pushing a few more women into those public spaces.
I kind of like reading reviews on occasion, but I can't say I've ever been swayed to see (or not see) a movie based on them. If anything, I'm more interested in reading reviews and discussion after I've seen a movie. Much like judging a book by its cover and its blurb, I'll generally decide if a film is worth viewing based on its trailer(s). Barring that, I'll go by past experience. That is, if I'm a fan of a certain director, I'll be on the lookout for their work. Or, sometimes an actor (or actors). Occasionally, a cinematographer. I don't really follow screenwriters, though...
Well, I certainly don't care for the consensus of the masses when it comes to taste.