“This happens when you don’t thank Beyoncé,” one reviewer wrote on Letterboxd after watching “Smile 2,” connecting the movie to a current trend, where not thanking Beyoncé leads to bad events.
This is just one example of the kind of reviews, both serious and funny, that viewers can see on Letterboxd, which was founded in 2011 and now has more than 10 million users.
Like Goodreads — but for movies instead of books — Letterboxd is a website where people can write, share and read reviews to discuss their favorite movies and help them determine what to watch next.
“Letterboxd is really easy to use and navigate. That’s why I like it,” junior Austin Siu, who uses Letterboxed, said.
Similarly to Goodreads, users can track the amount of movies they have watched in a year and make “watchlists” based on movies they would like to watch in the future.
But the website’s main lure is the ability to publish reviews for others to read and interact with. Users who publish reviews are able to gain followers and potentially become part of the featured members list, which consists of movie lovers who have written several interesting, high-quality reviews and have gained popularity.
Letterboxd can also be used to build an online community based on similar movie tastes. Junior Miles Wilzak said he is able to connect to friends more easily through Letterboxd.
“It’s a really great place to see what my friends are watching and sometimes sparks our conversations, which is nice,” Miles said.
Miles said when he uses Letterboxd he loves to write small reviews, which he can come back to for his own benefit later.
“When I watch a movie, whether I like it or not, I’ll write a small review for myself,” Miles said. “A few years ago I watched a really weird horror movie, called Possum, and I really liked it so I wrote a review, like, ‘This was really weird but also really good,’ to remind myself to rewatch it.”
Like Miles, Austin uses Letterboxd to get movie recommendations and to write reviews on movies he liked or disliked.
“I mostly write reviews for myself but I enjoy when others read them,” Austin said.
Austin also uses Letterboxd for its other purposes, such as connecting with others based on their similar movie tastes.
Austin said, “I’ve made a few friends from Letterboxd based on our shared interest in certain movie genres, which was pretty fun.”
Whether movie lovers are looking to use Letterboxd for singular use, to find people with similar interests or to just add reviews to find the next great movie, all of these can be found by looking at reviews on the Letterboxd website.
