Rating movies

[Oliuj]

Lately, I've been thinking: why do I rate movies? Is it really possible to capture what I felt about a movie by giving it a certain number of stars? I sometimes feel that by rating a movie I put it "to the side", meaning I don't think about it anymore; somehow all the thoughts and feelings are contained on those stars. Maybe I should keep a journal where I would write my opinions.

What's your take on this subject?

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

I agree with this view exactly, and I've stopped using stars, instead journalling my thoughts. I found stars substituted for thought -- I often spent much of the movie asking "How many stars will I give this?" rather than more substantive questions about meaning and a more complex evaluation - and also just stressed me out immensely. Trying to find a way to integrate various considerations (aesthetic, moral, political, historical, intellectual, sexual etc.) into a single evaluative scheme that I could communicate to others proved very hard; indeed, I came to feel it was impossible, and that the only method that felt honest was writing down these disparate specific thoughts, without stars. Stopped using stars a couple years ago and I haven't looked back. Much less stress. The downside (also a plus) is I feel a greater need to write about movies so to have any record of my reaction and thoughts, which takes more effort and time, though I do feel it's more rewarding too, myself.

[Lencho of the Apes]

I use stars and write at the same time; I feel like they're two complementary ways of expressing an opinion. Written prose describes the thing, and then the number of stars indicates, in a purely subjective way, how deeply I cared about the thing-as-described.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Absolutely, I don't mean to suggest you have to choose between the two, only that I found I needed to choose between the two. For me, I find my ability to indicate how deeply I cared about the thing-as-described can only be done in words, not a numerical rating, but this is merely one of my woe-betiding idiosyncrasies, perhaps.

[flip]

i'm sure we all question the value of star ratings now and again, because they obviously oversimplify things. but i find them useful for a few reasons - they can help me decide which films to revisit years later, for example. then there's things i enjoy, like angel's doubling the canon poll, or kanafani's showdowns here at scfz, that either require star ratings or would be difficult (for me anyway) to participate in without them. and when i know i share someone's interests and tastes in film, i can use their star ratings on letterboxd to discover films i might want to see or avoid. it's harder to do that by reading their reviews (and impossible if they don't write reviews). and maybe one or two people use my star ratings that way too sometimes.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

all good points! i definitely use your star ratings that way with pleasure, as with most everyone else i follow on LBD. perhaps i'll abandon my abandon-ship one day yet...

[thoxans]

i use star ratings to remind myself what i thought of a movie cuz years of drug and alcohol use have rendered my memory less than stellar... wait. what was the point of this post again?

[Umbugbene]

Every word that Flip said.

When I look at someone's profile on lboxd I usually go first to their 9-10 star ratings.

[wba]

Lately, I've been thinking: why do I rate movies? Is it really possible to capture what I felt about a movie by giving it a certain number of stars? I sometimes feel that by rating a movie I put it "to the side", meaning I don't think about it anymore; somehow all the thoughts and feelings are contained on those stars. Maybe I should keep a journal where I would write my opinions.

What's your take on this subject?

Exactly my thoughts.

I had been rating movies for years, to the point that I had developed a finely tuned system of giving grades between 0 and 100 to each film.
But in the end I was thinking too much about what I would rate a film, what its supposed merits and faults were, instead of letting the film grow and grow and change and morph and metamorphose.
Sometimes I found out that a film I thought worthless and a piece of shit, turned out to be a masterpiece that touched my soul 10 or 20 years later. And what do ratings say about this?
Nothing, really.

So I've come to despise and dismiss ratings and nowadays I just shrug and don't care when people rate a film.
It's basically bullshit.

It's ok, I guess, if you use it as a fun way of capturing a moment, your impression of something during a neverending process of change that hopefully will never stop.
If you use it to categorize and capture something "definite", it's useless.

[Umbugbene]

I'm with you WBA on how opinions change, but I like to hope that my assessments of movies are gradually approaching a wiser perspective. As my thoughts change, I adjust the ratings, as far as memory allows, and it can be fascinating to record how many movies swing either way. So yeah, the numbers shouldn't be taken too seriously, and it's a bad habit to think about them while watching a film, but I like to have some measure of quality for the sake or recommendations, rankings, and rewatches.

[wba]

...but I like to have some measure of quality for the sake or recommendations, rankings, and rewatches.

I haven't been giving numbers, stars or other stuff to movies for roughly ten years now, and trust me, it hasn't impacted any of my measurements for quality or made it difficult for me to recommend, rank or rewatch films.
It also hasn't made it difficult to give stars or numbers to films, if people or friends ask me for my opinion on such things.
So from experience I'd say to anyone that numbers and such aren't needed - at all.

[wba]

When I look at someone's profile on lboxd I usually go first to their 9-10 star ratings.

As for letterboxd, every favorite movie gets a heart ('like') from me there, so if you wanna know which movies I consider to be masterpieces, you just have to look at my "likes" section.
I enjoy that option much more, cause I can easily identify all my personal favorites with it (which others can see as well) without having to resort to ratings.

[Umbugbene]

Only saying what works for me. Without the ratings I could still tell you what I thought about the movies that count most, but most people will never ask, and there's a big difference between a "7" and a "10".

I've never given the little heart to any movie. It seems redundant to do so after expressing my opinion with a high rating. But I can see how some people would prefer the reverse.

Anyway I try to keep it in perspective. Numerical ratings, little hearties, thumbs up/down, etc. are a poor substitute for genuine thoughtful criticism, which is pretty rare. I've only begun reviewing movies on lboxd, and given the kind of snarky one-liner reviews that dominate the site I'm not sure I'm going to post much more.

[greennui]

I rarely rate films but when I do it's long after I've seen one, giving a rating to a freshly watched film feels fairly impossible for me.

[josiahmorgan11]

Flip, I use your star ratings to browse sometimes! It's this reason that I still use 0.5 stars and 5 star ratings but have dispensed with everything in between. I just 'know' when something is that good or that bad, but anything in-between can be really vague and difficult to gauge.

[Curtis, baby]

My ratings have nothing to do with the merits or values of the films I rate, which of course don't exist since there is no such thing as merit or value of pieces of art

They are a measurement of my affinity for the films I watch. Although measuring a subjective quantity, they are pretty objective as far as the actual measurements go, at least as objective as can be. After all, who is in a better position to enumerate my levels of affinity than me?

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

For those it may interest... A rather amusing and endearing piece I just read by Jonathan Rosenbaum reflecting on his use and determination of star ratings: https://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2018/ ... ith-stars/

[thoxans]

who is in a better position to enumerate my levels of affinity than me?

i'm pretty sure kanafani has an algo for that

[Curtis, baby]

who is in a better position to enumerate my levels of affinity than me?

i'm pretty sure kanafani has an algo for that

that would be an interesting exercise kanafani could do if he comes back

he picks a movie. his algorithm predicts our ratings. we watch and rate the movie. who did the algorithm get right? who did it get wrong?