Friday, September 11, 2009

Choose Wisely



Flickchart is either the best or worst thing to happen to making lists since ... well, since numbers.  The premise is simple: you make your list of favorite movies.  You do so by picking your favorite in a head to head match up.  The thing is, the match ups are sometimes surprisingly difficult.  That movie you loved and watched a dozen times in high school and can still quote from at length vs. that cool indie flick you caught a couple years back that got you thinking, deeply, about something you hadn't thought much about before -- which do you choose as your favorite?  They're totally different movies, different genres, maybe one's "art" and the other's not; but, the other's the one you and your friends saw together and use as a touchstone for shared memories.  One may be clearly better than the other in a critical sense but how do you separate your critical sense from your nostalgic fondness?  Should you even try?  The great thing is you have to choose one to move on.  The bad thing is you immediately get faced with another choice, then another, and before you know it hours have gone by and you're still clicking away.

Flickchart's database has been growing ... it used to pain me to see my list without The Maltese Falcon at the top because it just wasn't available ... and it's getting a little more social: you share match ups that intrigue you on Facebook now, as well as FriendFeed.  While there are social elements, the site is nicely designed in that they aren't in your face and you can rank to your heart's content without having to read how a bunch of idiots think The Dark Knight is the greatest movie ever made and anyone who doesn't think so obviously doesn't know anything about movies.  Yeah, the chuckleheads are there too but you can easily ignore them.  If you  score a beta invitation, try it out.  Then share your list with me. Update: You don't need an invitation any longer, they went live a couple days ago. So, do it.
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