So, not content to just have 85 movies in my queue (remember, I’m watching them at the rate of, oh…about 1 per 3 months…I should have the queue cleared by the time I’m 70), I’m looking to see what other gems Netflix is recommending for me.
It’s an ingenious software program they run. Really, it is. Based on how you rate movies, it decides what movies you’d probably enjoy. Like a lot of action flicks? Fine. Netflix will recommend every single action movie to you. Really like Robin Williams’ movies? You’ll get everything he’s ever shot on camera appear in your recommendations.
So, being who I am, I tend to like quirky, offbeat films; foreign films, and well, I’ve enjoyed some gay films. So….Imagine my stunned reaction to one of today’s recommendations:
Yes. Just because I liked a really funny (gay) movie called Jeffrey, they think I’ll like Cher??? Criminey. Does this mean the software believes that all gays watch gay movies, and that all gays like Cher? Did it even bother to look at my account and see the wife and THREE KIDS?
On the other hand, the software can group a set of films and recommend one movie based on ratings on 3 other films. Yeah, it tried this with me, and this is what I get:
I don’t know if many of you have seen all of these films, but there’s something oddly incongruous about the three films listed in each case. Brazil, Being There, and Gandhi have nothing whatsoever in common. Nor, for that matter do Brazil, The Hudsucker Proxy, and The Last Emperor. So how do they get mashed together to produce a recommendation for 2 movies? It makes you wonder if the software freaks out every time you positively rate a movie it believes you’ll hate.
The only thing that makes me think it works well is that Rhapsody in August is actually a Kurosawa film. Could be interesting. I’ll plan on watching it shortly after I turn 71. At least I know it really won’t ever recommend a popular movie.