About me
Hello, I’m Cesario. Nearly 30, in the UK and looking to see if I can make something to track what I'm watching, what I thought of it and hopefully change people's minds about ratings for films. You can have a brilliant film and not love it, and have a terrible film and adore it.
About this site
This is my own corner of the internet. It’s a log of things.
- Library: £verything I watch, read, listen to and play, with my thoughts.
- Blog: longer writing.
- Shelf: saved links, quotes and other bits I want to hold on to.
Not everything I log is public. Some entries stay private, so the Library is not a complete list.
How I rate things
Each entry in the Library can have up to four things: a star rating, a loved tag, a food-scale label and a status..
- Stars: how much I would give it out of five. It's not just if I liked it but more so looking at if it was a good film alongside that.
- Loved: whether it stuck with me - this is more for the if it was something I care a lot about and did it well. Labyrinth would get a love, Grease? Maybe not.
- The food scale: what kind of experience it was
- Statuses: where I’m up to
Stars
Stars go from 0.5 to 5, in half steps. A star rating is how much I enjoyed something, not a claim about how good it is for everyone. My taste is my own. But this is the space to look at for cinematography, score, casting choices etc.
| Stars | What it means |
|---|---|
| ★★★★★ (5) | Exceptional. I’d recommend it without hesitation. |
| ★★★★ to ★★★★½ (4 to 4.5) | Really good. I’m glad I spent time on it. |
| ★★★ to ★★★½ (3 to 3.5) | Fine. Parts of it worked for me. |
| ★★ to ★★½ (2 to 2.5) | Disappointing, or not for me. |
| ★ to ★½ (0.5 to 1.5) | I didn’t like it. |
If I dropped something early, it may have no rating at all, because I didn’t see enough to judge it.
Loved
A ♥ Loved tag is separate from the stars. It means something stuck with me: I think about it, I go back to it, or it became part of me.
That means a flawed favourite can be 3.5 stars and loved, and a 5-star masterpiece doesn’t have to be loved.
The food scale
Stars say how much. The food scale says what kind of experience it was. It asks two questions:
- Was it good? Well made, worthwhile, meaningful.
- Was it fun? Enjoyable, gripping, easy to sink into.
| Quality | Fun | Not fun |
|---|---|---|
| Good | Steak Good and fun. Satisfying and well made. The things I recommend most. |
Cod liver oil Good but not fun. Worthy, important or beautifully made, but hard work. I’m glad I did it. |
| Not good | Hamburger Fun but not good. Guilty pleasures. Not great for me, but I enjoyed every bite. |
Stale cracker Neither. Forgettable and joyless. Probably dropped, or finished out of stubbornness. |
The two scales are independent. A 4-star hamburger and a 4-star cod liver oil are both things I liked a lot, just in very different ways.
Statuses
- Planned: on my list, not started.
- In progress: I’m partway through.
- Finished: done.
- Paused: I stopped for now and might come back.
- Dropped: I stopped and don’t plan to return.
- Ongoing: no real end point, like an online game or a long-running series.
Reading comfort
I’ve tried to make this site comfortable to read. If anything doesn't work right I'm Cesario on WAFRN, feel free to send me a message.