By Bella Whitmore | Intern
Letterboxd is a social networking site centered on movies that is taking students by storm. Described as a “single place to showcase your life in film,” Letterboxd allows users to log their own movie activity while tracking that of their friends.
Trophy Club junior Parker Ford enjoys the social nature of the app.
“I like getting to see what movies my friends [are watching] and seeing what they rate them and what reviews they write,” Ford said. “It’s a fun way to keep up with friends and to find new movie recommendations as well.”
Some of Letterboxd’s features include creating watchlists for movies you want to see, displaying your top four movies on your profile and maintaining an exhaustive list of every movie you have seen. You can also rate and review movies. All this combined with the cute and easy-to-use nature of the app makes it a student favorite.
Denton junior Avery Appling enjoys keeping track of her favorite movies and seeing them all on one list in their separate categories.
“My favorite feature of Letterboxd is definitely getting to create my own lists in my profile,” Appling said. “I loved getting to make a list of my top 20 favorite movies, and it’s really fun to make lists for genres like indie films, dramas, rom-coms, etc.”
Letterboxd’s mission, however, seems to be a lot bigger than just recording movie-going experiences. The app itself is a love letter to cinema and does a wonderful job of uniting people together, all in the name of film.
Corinth junior Emily Creel said it provides a creative outlet for everyday people to assume the role of critic, empowering and inspiring them not only to watch movies but also to truly engage with them.
“Letterboxd has definitely made me more interested in watching movies,” Creel said. “I love looking at the funny movie reviews from users after I watch a movie. I love getting to check movies off my list.”
The beauty of Letterboxd lies in not taking itself too seriously. Some funny reviews on the app include “I was not entertained” for Gladiator (2000) and “s(he’s) bro(ken)” for Barbie (2023).
Letterboxd has reignited love and passion for cinema in a generation that has a weakening attention span and a constant need of stimulation, thanks to apps like TikTok. To make people excited about the future of movies again is no easy feat, and Letterboxd is doing an amazing job contributing to the cause.
