From serious film critiques to funny and light-hearted reviews, Letterboxd is the app to use for all that love watching movies. Letterboxd is an online social media platform designed for people who are film buffs, or that just enjoy watching movies, to share their film taste and opinions. Users have the ability to rate movies on a scale of one to five stars, log their film history and create funny or critical movie reviews—essentially functioning as a personal diary for movies. Many use the app on their phones, and are able to list their top four favorite films in their profile. Users can create a list of movies depending on how they want to categorize a group of films, sort of like a music playlist on Spotify. Letterboxd has recently gained popularity in the past few years, although it still is a niche app most people don’t know about unless they are interested in film.
Senior Simon Berhane likes to watch movies and has a lot of enthusiasm for it, especially thriller and action films. Because of this, he recently decided to install the app Letterboxd through a recommendation from his friend, although he knew about the app priorly.
“I guess I just started watching movies with my dad on Fridays, every night after school,” Berhane said. “It’d be a thing for me, my sister, and my dad to watch movies together. Sometimes it would be multiple movies a night.”
Berhane liked that when he watched movies with his dad, that he would relate his past experiences of life with the movie, thus sharing about his take on the film, and adding a sense of wisdom to it. For instance, Bruce Willis is a director his dad really likes, so he would tell him about his experience when he watched in the past.
Overtime, he started to develop a love for film, and began watching movies as a hobby in his free time without his family. He did this to see what type of movies he enjoyed, and expand his taste in cinematography.
His top four movies are “On the Count of Three,” “Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse,”“End of Watch” and “Whiplash.”
The plot of “On the Count of Three” is about two guys that are best friends. They both think that they have no direction in life and don’t know what they want to do. So, they figure that their best solution is to end their lives together by the end of the day.
“Throughout the movie, they spend the entire day doing things they have always wanted to do,” Berhane said. “Eventually they realize there’s so much they’re gonna be missing out on in life if they end their lives.”
After watching “On the Count of Three,” he had suddenly realized how important life is, and why he needs to make the best of it. In which, this thought really hit him hard. Every moment of life is important, and we need to appreciate what we have before it’s too late.
“‘The End of Watch’s’ plot is a realistic buddy cop movie about teens turning into friends. All the conversations feel so real and genuine.” Berhane said. “[The characters] have known each other for a long time. Their dialogue’s are something I’d say in a conversation with my friends. It feels like the characters are real people. It’s not fake talk, like other movies out there.”
Although the movie is very funny, and has great comedy, the ending is quite devastating. Because the characters had such a deep connection to one another, Berhane said it made the movie feel more authentic and personal, since throughout the movie he got to know the characters’ personalities, friendship, and families.
“At the end of the movie, you find out one of them dies. It’s so much harder [to watch] because you understand how close the relationship they had was.” Berhane said.
Berhane felt that it was much tougher to complete the end of the film, since actors Jake Gyllenhal and Michael Peña had such amazing chemistry and did a great good with their roles. Especially after watchers find out that one of the cops safrices himself to save his friend.
Berhane is a huge Spiderman fan and loves watching cameos for the franchise. Currently Miles Morales is his favorite version of Spiderman.
“I love the storyline for Miles Morales, because we are able to see his personal journey throughout this movie.” Berhane said. “He learns to depend on himself and not rely on what other people need him to do. He is able to not only just think about the greater good, but think about what’s best for everybody. And the animation is just amazing, It’s fight scenes are great.”
“‘Whiplash’ has great acting, it’s a movie about passion and the drive to be great. Greater than everyone else.” Berhane said. “I like that, but on the contrary it is pretty depressing, like it’s a very real burden to the watchers.”
Berhane finds joy in explaining the meaning of the movie. When watching films with his sister, there would be instances when she would not pick up on the endings quick enough, so he was able to clarify it for her. Being able to discuss what he just watched in his terms was something Berhane was keen about.
“I enjoy watching movies more than once. And then I like discovering certain things I didn’t understand on my first watch as well as seeing how characters interact.” Berhane said. “Trying to understand why characters act the way they do at the end of the movie.”
By rewatching a movie he is able to see the little hints the director put throughout the movie, as well as predict what will happen at the end, seeing if he was right or realizing scenes throughout a movie play a role in how the movie will end.
For example, something he noticed in Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse movie were there are scenes of Hobi grabbing pieces from the inventory of other Spider-Society members. At first it seems random because it just seems like he’s messing around, but it turns out by the end of the movie he was building another wristwatch for Miles, because he knows exactly what’s going to happen in the future.
“Another example isn’t a movie but a TV show called ‘Community’. In the movie ‘Beetlejuice’ if you say him three times he will appear.” Berhane said. “Throughout the span of maybe an entire season, characters say Beetlejuice three times in completely different episodes. And then in the split moment on the third time his name is said, Beetlejuice is seen in the background.”
Because of watching the sitcom show “Community” for a second time Berhane noticed it. He thought it was just a really cool detail and easter egg that made the show a whole more interesting. It made him feel more connected to the storyline, because it made him feel like he was in on the joke. This enhances the comedy of the show, and it’s so iconic because a lot of the show’s episodes reference different films, since one of the characters, Abed, is also a film geek that loves movies.
“Watching movies has influenced me as a person by making me better at analyzing [the world] and analyzing people. By going back for a second look at different things to see what I may have missed.” Berhane said.
Karsten Ceana Joaquin, senior student at UPA also recently started to use the app Letterboxd, Downloading the app in a similar way, by finding out about it from her older sister in college, when they watched Phantom together. Initially she didn’t care to get Letterboxd, but the more her sister talked about the app, she became more interested in it.
Although she is a fairly new user, having the app for only around two months, some of Joaquin’s favorite features on the app is being able to see other people’s reviews. As well as when her sister posted that she had watched a movie, she could add that Joaquin watched it with her.
“I thought [these Letterboxd features] were really cool. It shows how you can relate with other people when it comes to movies, and film taste.” Joaquin said.
Her top four favorite movies are “Inception,” “Imitation of Life,” “Everything Everywhere at Once” and “Don’t Look Up.”
“For ‘Inception’, I just thought that the concept was really cool. It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, but I remember that when I did, I was amazed.” Joaquin said. “Not only because Leonardo DiCaprio is the main character but also, the concept of just having a dream within a dream and the danger of it shows how dangerous the mind can be.”
“Recently, in film class, with Ms. Moore, we watched ‘Imitation of Life.’ I like Imitation of life because the ending was relatable and it made me feel like I was with the characters in the movie.” Joaquin Said.
Joaquin says that personally, if a movie can make her cry, she feel likes it’s a good film. Especially for “Imitation of Life”, she could feel every emotion the characters were feeling. And that connection between watchers and characters, really made her tear up.
In ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, I think the story, and the subtle humor, makes it so great. It really like how it downplays the daughter and her mom’s relationship, even though its so sad because of their distance.” Joaquin said.
This movie hit hard for her because she can understand the aspect of all the three main character’s family dynamic and relationship well, the mom, dad, and their daughter Joy. The movie uses comedy in a clever way by intertwining jokes around serious topics. For example, when Joy doesn’t like seeing her mom because she feels she won’t accept her, but although her mom loves her she makes a joke about how Joy has gained some weight.
“The movie ‘Don’t Look Up,’ I kind of correlated the ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ because I really feel like both of them have similar plots.” Joaquin said. “Of basically the ending of the world. But it’s also a little bit of comedy mixed in. So I really liked that. The directors can add that little bit of comedy in there, but still make a meaningful movie.”
She generally enjoys watching psychological thrillers, because it allows her to think more about the aspect of a character’s inner thoughts and morals. This allows her to understand why characters make certain decisions when she sees their thought process. Which in turn, allows her to watch the outcomes of those decisions propel the plot forward. Additionally, she finds watching them suspenseful, and more interesting as they keep her on her feet.
Overall, watching movies for Joaquin have had a big effect on her views of society. For example, after seeing “Barbie”, she knew how women were overlooked in certain areas of life, and it was a problem. But she did not realize how much women were mistreated in society, compared to men. Along with the amount of corrupt stereotypes women face daily.
“If the women in the movie didn’t call out all of the problems they faced nothing would have changed for them, and they would still be oversexualized and be in a disadvantaged world.” Joaquin said. “I never really took that to heart until I watched it. So it really does it wake you up to everyday issues.”
