With over 15 million subscribers, Reddit’s film-centered subreddit r/Movies is one of the site’s largest and most passionate communities. A user named Solunar got curious about what the r/Movies crowd would say if asked to pick their favorite movies, directors and actors so he set up a survey the results of which are now in. Some of Solunar’s findings are not surprising, while others are at least a little bit intriguing.
The survey ended up receiving several thousand responses, which may not seem like that many considering the subreddit has over 15 million subscribers. Perhaps not shockingly, 95% of those who responded were male while only 5% were female. The United States far-and-away led all countries in number of respondents at 53.4%.
With the survey skewing so far in favor of male Americans, it is not a surprise that the results (via Reddit) were dominated by movies and filmmakers that are already known to be popular with that particular demographic. Overall, the top movie among r/Movies users was Quentin Tarantino’s highly quotable Pulp Fiction, which beat out in order Star Wars, The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. The top 10 was rounded out by Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future.
Pulp Fiction of course also took home the prize for best ’90s movie, though director Quentin Tarantino was actually beaten out by Christopher Nolan for the title of favorite director, with David Fincher, Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick also placing in the top 5. No movies made after 2010 showed up in the top 10 overall, but Solunar does include data on favorite 2010-and-after movies, with r/Movies naming Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash their top film of the current decade followed by Mad Max: Fury Road, Interstellar, La La Land, Inception, Drive, The Social Network and Arrival.
Given that he has two movies on the top post-2010 list, it’s no shock that Damien Chazelle was chosen as breakout director (another award to put alongside his Best Director Oscar), beating Denis Villeneuve, Jordan Peele, Ava DuVernay and Jeremy Saulnier. Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, Jake Gyllenhaal was chosen as favorite actor over Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Tom Hanks, Tom Hardy, Daniel Day-Lewis, Michael Fassbender and Christian Bale. Oft-snubbed Amy Adams and Oscar-winner Emma Stone tied for favorite actress, with Brie Larson, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron placing in the top 8. But no Margot Robbie?
As for those movies that r/Movies users think don’t get enough love: the Robert Downey Jr. flick Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was named most underrated, beating out the Wachowskis’ maligned action film Speed Racer. Batman v. Superman finished third in that category, so perhaps that movie isn’t as hated as the critical response would make us believe. The most underrated list is rounded out by Swiss Army Man, Watchmen, Hot Rod, Moon, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Children of Men and the Denis Villeneuve-directed Jake Gyllenhaal mystery Enemy.
Source: Reddit
