Episode 136 - The Best of 2017

[Ryan L 57]

Not a comment in favor of or against any film in particular, but I hate that this is a 5-way versus because we’ll likely have a plurality winner for 2017 rather than a majority winner as we’ve had in every other poll. This should’ve been a traditional versus or a two-round poll. But then again, first-past-the-post voting is how we got into the mess of a year that was 2017...

[bleary 333]

Not a comment in favor of or against any film in particular, but I hate that this is a 5-way versus because we’ll likely have a plurality winner for 2017 rather than a majority winner as we’ve had in every other poll. This should’ve been a traditional versus or a two-round poll. But then again, first-past-the-post voting is how we got into the mess of a year that was 2017...

 

Agreed, but there's no simple way to make this poll so that it isn't first-past-the-post. It would have been cool to see everyone rank their choices here in the forum, but a relatively small percentage of voters tend to leave comments.

[RachaelB 3]

Get out, in addition to being well-crafted and fulfilling it's genre duties as a horror movie, does a unique service to human culture:

It's akin to the vitamins blended into a finicky child's favorite but not-so-nutritious meal by a clever and concerned parent. (Important that it wasn't sneaky, but thoughtful.)

 

While many great movies have been, "Oh that race movie," folks like me go into those knowing we're going to hit our white-guilt button and come out feeling bad for having benefitted from a system that harmed others for no reason, and then feel we've done a good deed by agreeing to feel bad, just as a person feels accomplished for eating a salad, even after coating it with ranch, such as, "I'm not like that. I wouldn't do that."

 

But a horror movie tends to be sorted in our minds as a guilty pleasure, for seeing nudity and violence. I saw horror fans opt for this movie because it was faithful to its genre. They reached for a refrigerated thin-mint or a rich cheesecake, and got it, not knowing it was loaded with life-saving vitamins and maybe some medicine for illness most of us don't know we have.

 

Thanks. love the show.

 

P.S. "Black Museum" chomped quite a bit of "Get Out" flavor, and I still enjoyed it. I wanted more Get-Out-esque stuff the way I want some cheesecake now.

 

P.S. my canon is "Movies I would want kept in a safe in the bunker for dystopian humans to watch, movies to launch into space to show others what we're all about AND movies everyone should acknowledge and consider seeing."

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

 

Agreed, but there's no simple way to make this poll so that it isn't first-past-the-post. It would have been cool to see everyone rank their choices here in the forum, but a relatively small percentage of voters tend to leave comments.

 

I suspect Get Out would also win a ranked-choice vote, possibly even easier than it's winning this vote.

 

I also suspect Last Jedi would be doing better and mother! would be doing worse.

[VikingMunky 0]

First time, long time. I vote for Mother! because it is the most unique and bold movie I think I've ever seen. I saw it months ago and still can't stop thinking about it and talking to people about it. It took me 3 days to even realize I liked/loved it. All of these movies were amazing in their own ways, but Mother! stood out to me.

[bleary 333]

 

I suspect Get Out would also win a ranked-choice vote, possibly even easier than it's winning this vote.

 

I also suspect Last Jedi would be doing better and mother! would be doing worse.

 

 

In a Borda count system, I agree that Last Jedi would be doing better and mother! would be doing worse, but I also suspect that Lady Bird would have a decent shot at beating Get Out. If we used the system that the Oscars use for Best Picture (instant-runoff, which is essentially a single transferable vote system) I have a tougher time predicting it, since the current 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place films are so close together. It would largely come down to those voters who put Star Wars 8 as their #1, since that would decide which of the films in the middle got eliminated next. If those voters all put, say, Florida Project as their #2, then Lady Bird would get eliminated next (or vice versa, or insert mother! in a similar situation). And then once it's down to Get Out and another contender, Get Out would only need about 1/3 of the ballots that didn't vote it #1 to at least have placed above that other contender. But again, depending on what that contender ended up being, it could be interesting.

[mjwilson 3]

Lady Bird hasn't been released yet in my neck of the woods. From the remaining candidates I'll go for The Florida Project (but honestly if I voted on a different day I might have gone for Get Out).