Is it really that good? Is the top 250 list hijacked?

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2007)

So many of us are asking these questions (me too) that I can't resist writing the 1743th comment :)
Q1: I give it an 8 (I give good movies 7-8) but I make the official vote 7 to even out the over-rated 10's. It's a good movie ... for being able to take an attentive viewer to think loud with and think like Lenny. I like the feeling that everything is unreliable and conflicting but not quite, and like Lenny, we're struggling to label and put down all possible hints to give ourselves a "consistent" story we can come into terms with (there is no truth ... that's life). I particularly like the debate on distortions of memory and interpretations verses facts, and how even the process of recording can be tailored for our purpose (brief spoiler -- the handwriting). The movie is successful in sharing these good ideas, due to excellent choices in the editing and the filming. It's also somewhat philosophical, giving the movie even a little depth and intellect beyond the regular thrill and entertainment. Not sure why I won't give a 9 ... I guess to score 9-10, a movie has to be good beyond reason, and here, I am still reasoning.
For comparison, Taxi Driver also takes the viewer to feel like Travis, but is more superior to me. Eternal Sunshine debates between over remembering the good and forgetting the painful parts of a relation, but falls short of doing the right job.
Now, the top-250-problem. I agree with many others that the top list is overwhelmed by the lack of criticism and breadth. It still serves a reasonable function to recommend well deserved movies, but the strong bias for "popular" movies prevents many other better movies to be brought to the limelight. (How can OK-movies like Pan's Labyrinth, Eternal, or the Departed get so close to Memento???) No one wants to use a top-1000 list, but together with filtering, we can have more versions of the top-list? Just like the filters for the comments, one can view the list with votes from prolific authors, or foreign movies only, or movies below/above a certain budget? Or have different weights to the votes?