I was not raised on the internet and only came into contact with Letterboxd because of my old roommate who was — you guessed it — a film major. The way she talked about it was as if in order to post you had to be this genius film critic, and if you weren’t, you were basically throwing yourself to the wolves. It scared the crap out of me. I immediately thought: well this is all a little too pretentious for me. I was both very wrong and very right.
The New Zealand based co-founders Karl von Randow and Matthew Buchanan debuted Letterboxd in 2011 to bring together the film community and give them a space to journal their thoughts on the film. But it didn’t rise in popularity for nine years. The global pandemic wasn’t good for a lot of things, but for Letterboxd, it was an angel. Suddenly everyone had time to watch movies and become hobbyist film-critics who needed an outlet to share their brilliant views on art.
What made me come around to Letterboxd? Ayo Edebiri. The Bear (2022-) actress became one of my favourite celebrities due to her easy sense of humor in press interviews. Screenshots of her reviews landed on my for you page with things like her line for Anatomy of a Fall (2023) where she wrote, “Well I just saw the greatest acting performance of my life and it was not by Sandra Hüller or a child actor with the cuntiest bangs I’ve ever seen — it was by a dog so —.” She also posted: “I’m in it with my friends so” for her own film Bottoms (2023). Safe to say I realized Letterboxd can be literally whatever you want it to be. I signed up for it pretty soon after.
Unfortunately, after a blissful six months on this site I’ve begun to realize my original worries were maybe a little more correct than I wanted them to be. As the Arts in Review Editor for The Cascade, I appreciate a good movie review. It’s part of my job. But now when I open Letterboxd, I’m bombarded with long and complex reviews. Where did those funny one-liners go? Where is the absurdism? The true feelings delivered in less than 20 words? If I want a full-blown review analyzing lighting choices and sound mixing, I’ll crack open a newspaper or pull up a YouTube video essay. Not a silly little app on my phone meant to be a film diary.
So this is my plea: bring back the weird reviews. The ones that have almost nothing to do with the movie and instead make me laugh. Who cares if it’s not perfectly written or isn’t a deep thematic analysis. I literally quoted that Elijah Wood The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) wig meme in my reviews for the trilogy. Make Letterboxd fun again, fill it with inside jokes and silly comments, then no one will have to question whether or not they’re “filmbro” enough to download the app.
