The Best Year in Film History

[cinemaphile]

Originally Posted by Jcratigan

I'm inclined to agree to some extent with your second point that many films are overrated simply because they are formative. Man with a Movie Camera is an interesting historical document, but all the joy of the film is extra-textual.

But recency bias is absolutely real. Look at the IMDB Top 250 over the years, recent movies will jump in and then slowly drop down. Coco is at #52 right now. And it's real in my own viewing. I've averaged about 100/year this decade, 70 in the 00's, 65 in the 90's, 40 in the 80's, and about 20 before that. So because I use weighted totals, any recent year would win on the back of dreck.

Looking at places like IMDb, where it includes everyone's ratings, yes there is recency bias in the total scores and rankings because a lot of people have not seen older movies so they're only giving High marks to newer films. But I meant in one person's personal ratings of films, I don't think individuals rate newer movies higher than older movies based on any recency bias.