The most divisive films of the 21st century revealed

Movies can be like Marmite, and while some raved about, say, Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending Inception, others thought it was over-complicated guff.

Some loved Darren Aronofsky’s demented mother!, while others simply couldn’t sanction its abject bonkersness.

As such, tech site Gizmodo has compiled a list of the most divisive movies of the last 17 years.

The site pulled together the reviews for more than 9000 movies, as listed on the reviews aggregator Metacritic, with movies receiving 40 reviews or more qualifying.

The diversity of the Metacritic scores, using a statistical test of Standard Deviation, then determined how much critics agreed or disagreed about certain movies.

And finally it arrived at a top 50, with (drum roll, please) Lars Von Trier’s beautifully shot but maddeningly ponderous rumination on the apocalypse Melancholia in the top spot.

Inception is indeed in there, at number five, as are movies like Sin City, Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon and Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.

Here’s the top 20 in full:

1. Melancholia
2. The Counselor
3. Sin City
4. The Neon Demon
5. Inception
6. The Hateful Eight
7. 21 Grams
8. Youth
9. Under the Skin
10. Somewhere
11. The Wolf of Wall Street
12. The Passion of the Christ
13. Savages
14. To The Wonder
15. I Heart Huckabees
16. Spring Breakers
17. Nymphomaniac: Volume I
18. mother!
19. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
20. A Million Ways to Die in the West

Meanwhile, the list of the most agreed on movies is topped by Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, followed by Gravity, Moonlight, A Separation and Carol.

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