Why do people expect everyone to understand their film references?

That's like asking why people don't explain jokes. You get it or you don't. Not everything is meant for you.

It’s a filtering mechanism. If you get it, you’re a cool guy worth talking to. If not, maybe bugger off.

I'm happy to tell anyone who thinks this way that THEY should bugger off.

A random movie reference can be expected to not caught by anyone more than 10 years different from you in age, or who is from a different culture. You will also miss some mavericks like me who really don't care much about a lot of popular culture.

If you value matching on those criteria over, say, knowing about something interesting, then I'm happy to ignore you.

Given the tone of your post, it is clear the original filtering mechanism was sufficient.

Apparently so. If your idea of good conversation is endlessly repeating the same nostalgic popular culture references, then you've discovered that you don't want to talk to me, and I've discovered that I don't want to talk to you. We've both come to conclusions that make our lives better.

But that begs the question of why you'd bother seeking out a forum whose entire purpose is conversations that you're apparently not interested in. Why not seek out like-minded people whose conversational interests match yours more closely?

I understand most references that are posted on this forum. Perhaps it is you who is out of place. Are you even aware that references are being made? Perhaps not, how could you be? You don’t know what you don’t know.

I'm in https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders. If I don't belong here, a lot of people are rather confused.

Given the films you're comfortable judging people on not having memorized, I'm glad you're self-selecting yourself away from people too!

Cool people watch mainstream commercial cinema?

...it's not even a good, or properly aged, film!

HN, you're getting weird.