Before March of 2020, I defined myself as a “movie-hater”. Looking back, that sounds harsh when in reality all I meant was that I did not have the desire to sit and watch something for two hours straight. Once the pandemic hit and everyone was living in quarantine, I found nothing better to do than to watch movies to help pass the time. To make it more interesting for myself, I created a note on my phone where I would record my review and rating of every movie I watched. I didn’t plan on sharing my reviews, after all, who would want to read my thoughts on movies? Shortly into my movie-reviewing endeavor, my film-buff friend posted about an app called “Letterboxd”.
Letterboxd is a social cataloging app that allows users to rate and review the films they watch. Users can track how many films they’ve seen and when. What makes this app especially popular is the social aspect. Users can build their profile by listing their 4 favorite films and following other users. The founders advertise Letterboxd as “Goodreads for film”. While launched in 2011, Letterboxd has gained increasing popularity over this past year. The app has gained notable traction through their red-carpet interviews asking famous actors and directors to share their top 4 films. After a user was discovered to be actress Margot Robbie, several other celebrities’ accounts have been found including: Martin Scorsese, Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, and Dacre Montgomery.
One of the primary features of Letterboxd is the reviewing feature, which has come to be one of the app’s main controversies. Because of the app’s accessibility, anyone and everyone can give their thoughts about any particular film. The most popular reviews for most films on the app are usually brief, funny comments about the film rather than a thought provoking review. For example, the most liked (over 89 thousand likes) review for the 2023 Oscar Winner film Barbie reads: “s(he’s) bro(ken)”. Some believe that Letterboxd reviews should be legitimate critiques and comments and find the lack of effort in reviews to be disrespectful of filmmaking. Personally, I find the silly reviews to be my favorite part of the app.
Letterboxd has changed the way in which I interact with film. During a movie, I will be thinking about what my review will be; should it be witty and funny or should it be serious and actually contribute to the conversation? How my friends rate and review movies often influence my decision in watching those movies. Through Letterboxd’s records, I know that I watched 10 Things I Hate About You 44 times last year, maybe this year I’ll try and watch it 45 times.
I watched 421 films in 2023 and a huge reason for that is my excitement to log and review those films on Letterboxd. So take it from someone who used to hate movies, give Letterboxd a shot. It’s my newest favorite social media.