That's right. This is a list of 250 movies that /r/movies likes. That's it, in its totality.

If /r/movies wishes to be respectful to the ideas of these kinds of canons, it should probably not be ranked. I don't think /r/movies, the subreddit at large, does care about the "validity" of those canons and lists, so it can do whatever it wants, but it should be honest with itself and its representations of quality and merit on the list.

(To be clear, I'm generally anti-canon, as a formal dogma, but these lists are exceptionally helpful. That said, the BFI list is compiled from contributions of the world's best filmmakers and critics, and is thoughtfully managed and processed. Too often, I've gotten into debates with /r/movies Redditors claiming that IMBD and /r/movies lists are better, ie, that their specific opinion actually holds more credibility than the BFI lists because, really, of their ignorance in the broader history and achievements in cinema. Because, you know, when the BFI doesn't include Christopher Nolan's films, clearly they don't know shit.)

I think the /r/movies 250 list should be, in basic, an effort in line with what all other similar efforts actually are: these are the 250 (or so) movies that this community has identified as central to the identity of this community, and users should be conversant in these films in order to engage fully with the community.

No list can or should be complete. Exclusions are valuable assets (they give you something to discuss, emphasize, fight about, and to define the community against). But there's no need to rank, no need to oppressively grapple with. I like the yearly review: a flexible list responds to the culture of the community.

All this said, I personally really don't like this list of films. It is young, shallow, a-historical, based largely in undeveloped or asserted tastes, absolutely lacks minority, female, "foreign" and global, and historically crucial films. It's the list of a debutant group of movie lovers, but not really of either cinephiles or of deep participants in culture. There are very few films on that list that challenge forms or ideologies of Reddit in interesting ways. Very few films that identify the group as radical, individual people. It's a pretty vanilla list, unfortunately.

Here's the thing: it's in line with the culture of its creation.