Letterboxd is the app for logging and rating all your recent movie experiences. Some despise it because film bros have ruined their perception of the app, while others love giving every movie that their favorite actor is in a five-star rating. It’s time to state the facts and get some definitive answers. Yet, nevertheless, no definitive answers will be given because at the end of the day, this is an opinion piece by a college girl who loves giving too high of a rating to heart-wrenching love stories and silly little comedies.
The Love of My Life: Letterboxd
When someone asks me what my favorite movie is, my first instinct is to panic and say the last movie I watched. Simply put, there is no way I can pick a favorite movie when there are so many intricate details and different cinematic features to take into account when considering a film. To put it bluntly, I am indecisive and love most of the movies I watch. At least with Letterboxd, I can go back and look at my list of favorite movies or see which ones I gave a five star rating in order to give my inquirer something to work with. For reference, some of my five-star films are Bones and All, Saltburn, Mid90s, Little Miss Sunshine, and Kill Bill.
Letterboxd is amazing for highly opinionated people who watch a film alone in their room at 2 am and want to tell anyone who will listen about their full breakdown during every second of the film. Reviews don’t have to be a formal analysis of the film at all. Usually after watching a romance, I’ll leave a silly review, like “When will it be my turn,” or after watching a horror movie simply state if I would have survived it or not. It’s a social app, so you can add friends and see when they review a movie, which is entertaining when you live a long distance from each other. I know you all stalk what your friends are listening to on Spotify, but stalking their recently watched movies and their watchlist is even more satisfying, I’m telling you.
One of my favorite features of the app is the “lists” section. You can search any vibe or possible category for movies, and someone will have made a perfect playlist of movies that are curated to your search. For example, if you were to search “movies to watch when I’m curled up in bed crying and need a reason to happy cry,” or “movies that use cannibalism as a metaphor for love,” twenty different people have made perfect lists for you with an array of different movies that will perfectly fit your search. I especially love this feature because it gets me out of my movie comfort zone that I would otherwise watch through a friend or a Pinterest recommendation.
Personally, once I watch a movie, I will obsess over it for at least a week.I will tell anyone who will listen about it, so I love that on Letterboxd you can see the directors or all the actors that were in the movie. This way, you can explore what other movies they have acted or directed in. And yes, I know that you can also just google actors while you’re watching a movie (or after) to see what else they are in, but Letterboxd lays it out in a prettier format, and you can also see what percentage of films by that actor you have watched. I’ve been on a big “going through my latest celebrity crush’s filmography” or “sticking with a production company I like (like A24)” kick for a while. I’ve made it through most Wes Anderson, Greta Gerwig, Paul Mescal, and Timotheé Chalamet films.
My Secret Nemesis: Letterboxd
Enough shameless promotion for Letterboxd; it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and open your eyes to how the app distorts your views on movies and how it is downright confusing to navigate. We’re all turning into little Letterboxd robots, the way we flock to the app even before the credits finish to state opinions and let everyone know that we watched a cool, edgy movie (even though no one really cares).
In my opinion, the biggest negative of Letterboxd is that your own opinion of the film can be altered after seeing what others have thought of the film. After watching a life-changing, show-stopping, killer horror film, you could decide that it actually wasn’t that good because it has an overall 2.5-star review on Letterboxd. Lots of people who are leaving reviews on the app are pretentious wannabe film bros who will leave their negative, sad little takes on movies. While this is more of a gripe I have with the users of Letterboxd, the general vibe can be killed by, to quote my Mom, “negative nancies.”
My friend wrote a passionate, paragraph-long review describing the pure horror that is The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), and rated the movie a full 5 stars– while overall it received a measly 3.2. Simply put, it is absolutely infuriating when your favorite movies are getting dragged in the mud by random teenagers online. If you are on Letterboxd searching for what to watch, you need to take the movie’s rating with a grain of salt. For example, I give most things a 5-star rating if it was entertaining and I found the cinematography pleasing. Differently, there are people on the opposite end of the spectrum who will give every movie a 1 star just to spite the industry, so stay wary out there.
While the pesky opinions of others can be ignored, some of the more confusing aspects of the app can’t be ignored. I still don’t know where I can see just a plain list of all the movies I have rated or how to better organize the movies I have watched and rated. If there is an option for listing all the movies I’ve watched in descending order from highest to lowest star rating, I still haven’t found that option. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if I didn’t have to link my Twitter account to have a profile picture because I, in fact, do not have a Twitter account. All these issues could hypothetically be from me having a lack of understanding of the app, but that just further proves my point that it isn’t the most straightforward app to navigate.
To Use or Not to Use: Letterboxd
Although I have my grievances with the app, I will continue to use it because I love making lists, and anything organizational gives me a little serotonin boost. At the end of the day, the decision lies in your hands, and, either way, it’s not life or death; it’s just an app. The app is meant to be enjoyable and helpful. If after reading this article Letterboxd still sounds like it could provide enjoyment, I urge you to download the app; and if it sounds like something you wouldn’t want then, by all means, don’t get it (you’ll get addicted anyway)! Anyways, my Letterboxd username is Ke1ra if anyone is feeling really compelled to see what movies I’ve watched recently and discover for yourselves if I have the true qualifications to be writing this article.
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