Letterboxd
is a social media platform launched by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011 that allows users to share their opinions on films. Think of it like IMDb meets Film Twitter, except with less emphasis on information and more emphasis on critique. note Users can log the movies they watch and share reviews ranging from analytical essays to just a few brief words about a film. They can also assign movies a star rating out of five, though the ability to reward half-stars makes it a 10-point system.
Being tailored more towards cinephiles than general audiences, Letterboxd has had less problems with internet trolling than IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. It gained steam throughout The New '10s with a heavy emphasis on user-friendly features, such as the ability for users to create and share lists (from personal top tens to notable award snubs to jokes/Overly Narrow Superlative lists like "films where jake gyllenhaal deserved to win an oscar for nightcrawler"spoiler). Traction has increased to the point where several directors and noteworthy professional critics have taken to sharing their opinions and promoting their fellow filmmakers and reviewers on the site (such as Martin Scorsese, Sean Baker, Jim Cummings, and Mike D'Angelo, to name a few).
The site primarily covers film as a medium, though cinematic Mini Series (like HBO's Band of Brothers, Netflix's Maniac (2018) and Hulu's Devs) and a curated selection of television series (including Twin Peaks, every individual serial of Doctor Who's classic 1963-1989 run and select episodes of the modern 2005-present run, every individual Super Sentai series and a number of 12-Episode Anime) are also available for comment. Like IMDb, it also has an "Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films" list maintained by one of the site's patrons, as well as an "Official Top 100 Documentary Films" in a separate list. Of course, there are countless other creative lists and reviews to be explored, and plenty of Twitter profiles dedicated to collecting overlooked gems.
On July 19, 2022, Letterboxd reached one billion logged films; the billionth film was Alien³.
As of March 2022, 2024, the top 10 of the Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films (scale of 1 - 5) are:
- 4.7 - Harakiri (1962)
- 4.6 - Come and See (1985)
- 4.6 - 12 Angry Men (1957)
- 4.6 - Seven Samurai (1954)
- 4.6 - The Godfather Part II (1974)
- 4.6 - High and Low (1963)
- 4.6 - Parasite (2019)
- 4.6 - The Godfather (1972)
- 4.5 - The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
- 4.5 - The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Tropes associated with Letterboxd:
- Easter Egg:
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire is rated with flames rather than stars.
- If you shake your phone in the app after midnight, Stripe from Gremlins pops up on the screen, then disappears.
- Around Halloween and on certain horror-themed lists or user profiles such as Hollie Horror, the logo bleeds.
- On the desktop page for Tenet, the page starts again after the footer, albeit upside-down.
- The "watched" eye symbol has been modified for certain media.
- For Dune media (all film and television adaptations as well as the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune), it's blue instead of green, in reference to the Fremen.
- For Everything Everywhere All at Once, it's a googly eye sticker, in reference to one of the film's motifs.
- On the page for Parasite, the green dot in the Letterboxd logo will start flashing after a few seconds. This is a reference to the character of Geun-sae, who uses Morse code with the house lights to try and communicate with the outside world. The message the logo is transmitting is "BONGHIVE BEST PICTURE 2020".
- On the app only, clicking back on Groundhog Day will take you back to the same page.
- Also app-only — publishing a review of Fight Club will bring up a disclaimer making sure you're OK with breaking the first two rules of the namesake club.
- The page for Tár has the logo read "Lettárboxd" instead of "Letterboxd".
- The "like" heart symbol for Barbie (2023) is pink rather than orange.
- Leaving a review on any film in the Mission: Impossible Film Series will play a video where Ethan Hunt overrides a self-destruct sequence.
- On desktop, if you include a candle emoji (🕯) in your review of Talk to Me, a message along these lines◊ will appear in your activity feed.
- Every film in the Scream series replaces the Darth Vader icon for the spoilers setting with an icon of Ghostface.
- Both Borat films (the original and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) have their "Related films" and "Similar films" sections instead read "Related moviefilms" and "Similar moviefilms".
- On desktop, the watchlist icon for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour has its clock face set to midnight, referencing Swift's album Midnights.
- On desktop, the page for Napoleon (2023) has the colors of the three dots in the logo changed to those of the French flag.
- On the app only, the "stunts" icon under the Crew section for every John Wick film, which usually displays as a sword, instead displays as a tie and gun.
- On the app only, the "visual effects" icon under the Crew section for every Star Wars film, which usually displays as a dinosaur, instead displays as a spaceship.
- On the app only, all films featuring Jason Isaacs will have the text "…and hello to Jason Isaacs!" displayed at the bottom of the Cast section, in reference to Kermode and Mayo's Film Review.
- All of the Ghostbusters films have a special Letterboxd logo: the "O" in Letterboxd is replaced with the "no entry" symbol, the green dot is replaced with a ghost, and the whole thing leaks ectoplasm in a similar fashion to the bleeding logo described above.
