If you are a fan of Seinfeld, you’ll be familiar with the episode called “The Comeback”, wherein Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) happens upon a video store clerk’s recommendations. The clerk, Vincent, seems to really speak to her. His ability to pick the movies she loves resonates with her on every level, and before long she is desperate to meet the elusive clerk. When she finally does, as you might have guessed, hilarity ensues. I won’t spoil the gag for you, but here’s a funny clip I found from the episode.
But, now that we have seen video stores die in the digital on demand wars of the mid-2000’s, with grocery stores now offering up sad little kiosks that gleefully spit out whatever inane thing you might request, we’ve lost the human touch. That’s where Veboli comes in. They have developed a site that allows you to track your favorite critic and see if you have the same taste in films. And it’s not just critics, they also have the ability to compare your tastes with similar users . . . people like you.
They were predominantly Dutch critics, at first, but earlier this month they created an entire English site and have added amazing critics, like moi, to their site!
Veboli is chock full of analytical breakdowns based on genre, year, country, and rank distribution. In my real life gig, I am a data analyst, so these things fascinate me. I like to be able to look at data and make a decision based on that data. Otherwise, head on over to your grocery store and hope that the latest “must see” crap that so-called critics are feeding you as “brilliant” is available.
I can’t screen every single movie, and I certainly haven’t written a full review of every movie I have ever seen, but thanks to Veboli, I am able to give a quick rating of every film I have seen and you can gauge from that if I am aligned with your tastes. Remember, I didn’t start reviewing movies until 2008, so there are plenty of classic films, and especially from the ’80s (arguably the best time for films) that I don’t have full reviews posted on FilmGrouch.
If you are curious about my tastes, here’s my official Veboli profile, and I encourage you to see if I might be your mysterious Vincent, so to speak. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you for vodka, cigarettes, and fireworks! But, if you’ve got any whiskey handy, I won’t send it back!
