What is ZEJ?

Super reasonable question. The pandemic created some really weird things and one of those really weird things was a movie ratings alliance formed by two married people, (Z)ach and (E)llen, and their perpetually third-wheel but beloved friend (J)ord. Baby ZEJ was conceived on April 9th, 2022, the night they went to see Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is a transformative movie, and it became the basis for a spreadsheet that Zach would create to compile the trio’s movie ratings. From there, the ratings spreadsheet turned into reviews and discussion amongst their friends, and two years later, a website. Since EEAAO, ZEJ has seen 65+ in-theater movies together, and an additional 145+ other movies separately or at in-home watch parties, and has slowly morphed into a powerhouse of movie ranking and review phenomenon. So welcome to ZEJ, where the reviews are bitesize, and the ratings are in triplicate (most of the time - see note on Jordan below).

  • Zach

    All of the best things in this world probably started with a good spreadsheet. Zach combined his love with movies with his passion for statistics and Google Sheets, and alas, here we are. He is currently in the lead for having given the most 10 out of 10 ratings with 5, to Ellen’s 2 and Jordan’s 1, but he is the first to admit that he is a sucker for animated movies, of which 3 of those 10’s are.

  • Ellen

    Education is important, or so say professors, and this professor would like it known that she is the most educated in terms of film study and also just generally. She loves John Wick 4 (Z8.75 E9 J7.75) but hates The Batman (Z9 E6 J9), and that is one of life’s great paradoxes. Ellen would also like to shoutout one of her former students and future Hollywood phenom Ian and his movie blog.

  • Jordan

    As a teacher, Jordan agrees that education is important but would say that you don’t have to take a film class to appreciate a bad movie, and Jordan LOVES bad movies. Of the current 58 movies with a rating of 7 or lower on the ZEJ ratings spreadsheet, Jordan has seen 53 of them, whereas Zach & Ellen just 22. He is also proud to tell you that Planet of the Apes is the best movie franchise of all time, but don’t count the Tim Burton one.