Over the weekend, I fleshed out this website’s library; a page that will hopefully soon be a living overview of all the media and culture I consume. It’s populated by a library.yml data file, which I appreciate for its ability to store my information regardless of the website or software.

Sure, I have a Goodreads profile and an IMDB account, but this is more sustainable. If you’ve been on this website before, you’ll know that’s important to me.

I collect the same properties for each of the entries: the maker, category, identifier, data, and a link to a review if I wrote one. I also give each entry a rating. When I saw the number of 10s I awarded to over two dozen titles under Watch, I got to thinking about how I rate titles.

1. How good it is in its genre?

Comparing apples to oranges is hardly ever effective. In the same vein, I see no value in comparing a monster movie to an art house film. I compare Godzilla Minus One (2023) to Godzilla (2014), and The Zone of Interest (2023) to Festen (1998).

2. Is it the best it could’ve been?

My academic background in literary criticism always leaned more towards analysis of the inner and outer workings of stories, and less on me being able to determine whether something is good.

Still today, this is how I approach narratives. When I think of the value a film or book has for me, I think about the cleverness or originality of the storytelling techniques. To a lesser extent I assess the value of what I missed in the story.

3. Does it make us better?

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to shape our realities, craft communities, (re)establish power dynamics.

When I rate a story, I consider what its role is in how we write our own histories; whether I think it respectfully depicts the characters involved.

This way, I give If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) a 9, and Green Book (2018) a 2; Schindler’s List (1993) a 5, and Nuit et brouillard (1956) a 9.

How do you rate?

I’m curious to know if other people apply similar, different or any conscious tactics in rating their media consumption.