love hate relationship with letterboxd

letterboxd logo

Truth be told, I have been facing some hardcore writers-block lately. But I finally decided on a whim that I was just gonna talk about what I feel towards letterboxd. Now this is the second time I've written about my love hate relationship with something, the first time being about spoiler alerts, and truthfully a little bit about having aux. So I guess it just seems like I really have a lot of love hate relationships with a lot of things. Theres definitely plenty of directors, movies, shows, books, celebrities, and more, but I think those are for another day.

Now in high school I was actually in DECA, which is lowkey nerd behavior of me but it's whatever. And one of my projects one year was honestly based on letterboxd, it was basically exactly letterboxd but for music. So it was kinda like the app airbuds but mixed with letterboxd and you just review albums or singles and can have certain artists favorited and albums too. Truth be told the name for the app was in fact Collection 33 and it's where I got the name for my blog from. Collection cause well it's a collection of music, and 33 because that refers to rpm (revolutions per minute) that is typically used for a majority of vinyls, and I absolutely love vinyls and love my collection of them. But anyways if there's any coders reading this like for sure invest in making in that app I would be the first user.

But anyways that was a tiny lore drop on how letterboxd is honestly slightly connected to my blog name and the reasoning for it. But back to letterboxd itself and why I love and hate it. I truthfully used to swear up and down I would never get a letterboxd account, but one day my senior year of high school in 2024 I succumbed to downloading it. I really don't remember the reasoning of why I downloaded it or why I was so adamant on not downloading it to begin with. Truth be told I think I didn't want it for a similar reason of why I refuse to have airbuds, I just didn't want everyone constantly patrolling or seeing what I was watching in that moment especially since I love rewatching movies. But then I realized how deeply I loved movies and people who thought similarly existed and were openly sharing their thoughts. So I guess the concept of letterboxd grew on me enough to download it, but I still refuse to get airbuds, I've tried it twice now and it's just not happening.

Now for why I love letterboxd, like I said I get to share my thoughts on some of my favorite movies. And I absolutely love reading the reviews that people leave, sometimes they'll be slightly introspective and other times they have me and my friends laughing hysterically. My favorites sometimes are about how victorian children could not even begin to comprehend the thoughts or lines in certain movies, I'm specifically thinking of one about Scott Pilgrim v. The World, which I do wholeheartedly agree with. I love letterboxd because I can keep track of movies on a watchlist so when I can't think of what to watch off the top of my head I can go to my watchlist and find something that fits my mood. I love how I can see my friends ratings and sometimes comments on movies they recently watched, sometimes I'll ask them about it the next day or something to know more about their thoughts. It's basically a great way to stay connected with friends and what they're watching and their thoughts. I love the part where I can put a top four and constantly update it, I love how I can ask someone their top four and learn so much about them just from their response and how it can spark a longer conversation like their hot takes. I love how I can create lists of certain movies and name them, except I really need to take more advantage of that, I only have two right now, one is about movies that tear my heart about so basically doom and despair, and the other follows the theme of striving for perfection.

a screenshot of my top four on letterboxd!

My top four doesn't change too often only occasionally but they're typically replaced by a movie that had a similar vibe to it. For instance, before Moonrise Kingdom I had yet another Wes Anderson movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and before mysterious skin, I had another hit made by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 500 Days of Summer, and before Scott Pilgrim v. The World, I had another guilty pleasure feel good movie of mine, Kiki's Delivery Service. So basically there's always a similarity with what they're getting replaced by. Truth be told though I don't really rate many movies as 5 stars. This isn't a completely conscious thought though, It's not like I'm a strict grader I think it truly depends on my mood before, while, and after watching a movie and just how much I think about it. Honestly my ratings have changed in the past, they've gone up and they've gone down at times too after rewatching or even just thinking more about it, sometimes I'm too generous then I think back and I'm like that was like actually an average movie at best.

Now as for why I hate letterboxd. Hate is a strong word but there are plenty of things about letterboxd that I have a bone to pick with out of strong dislike. I truly really wish letterboxd had shows too, sometimes they have some shows, but they're typically set in stone to be one season or docuseries, I mainly say this because although I do love movies I equally love shows, I go back and forth with phases of being in a movie or a show mood. So I would really love to see a well known site similar to letterboxd that focused on shows, mainly cause I haven't found one that I truly love, or see letterboxd add shows to their site. Now another reason I personally dislike it, but this honestly is more of a personal issue of mine, is I honestly forget it exists at times. I am truly so awful at recording down and rating movies I watched even if I watched it after looking at my watch list. I would say a max of 20% of movies I've actually seen in my life do I actually have recorded in my letterboxd. That and my watchlist isn't very complete either, I really go through phases where I add about 10 movies in one day and then don't touch the app again for another month or two until I do it again. Now the last main reason for disliking it is I think some people take it way too seriously. I think letterboxd is mainly just for a way of connecting with friends and seeing strangers opinions on movies, there's no reason to act as if you're acting like you're in the Oscar award and nomination room. Some people who use letterboxd truly need to ease up a bit and have some more fun and whimsy.

But anyways that is all for my tangent on letterboxd, but if you're interested to see my account and my once in a blue moon remembering to rate a movie my user is ashcotton127

-AC