How I Select Movies...

Someone asked me the above question recently, this is how I responded.

I'm a Netflix junkie.

As I view notices and adverts for movies (filmmaker mag, NYT, blogs, film festival winners), I add the movies to my Netflix queue. Virtually, all movies I want to watch enter my Netflix queue under SAVE.

I check "Rotten Tomato" and "Metacrtic" weekly and add movies to my Netflix queue based on: 1) critical acclaim, 2) box office, and 3) favorite actors/directors. I also view Ebert's website periodically and add most of the movies he rates with a 3.5 stars or greater to my Netflix queue. My taste in movies, more or less, matches his.

And lastly, I have two "friends" on Netflix. I watch their movie queue, viewing their trends and ratings. If there is something they rate high that I'm interested in, I'll add it to my queue.

I gave up my cable TV two years ago and I only attend the theatre about 10 times a year. All my movie viewing is either Netflix DVD or Netflix streaming.

I was a huge independent film watcher, but recently (say last five year) anything "independent" typically means "bad". Sundance Film Festival seems to be the kiss-of-death for film. I'm back watching mostly international films now, in leu of independent films, and a lot of older films and documentaries.

I'm finding it much more satisfying to watch a great, older film than to watch a poorly conceived, new film. Netflix makes this very easy to do. Plus my current rate of viewing is about films per week, so I've seen most new films.